


Ms. Goode

by Cl0wnB0y_png



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race (US) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Trans, F/F, Gender Dysphoria, Highschool AU, Im trying my best, Lesbian AU, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Trans AU, crygi, gender euphoria, im sad let me be, lesbian rights <3, projecting my problems lol, trans gigi goode
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:27:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 55,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cl0wnB0y_png/pseuds/Cl0wnB0y_png
Summary: Gigi Goode moves from LA to a small town in Missouri due to her mom's recent promotion and she's thrilled to start her life over from scratch. Finally being able to live only as Gigi.orGigi Goode gets a fresh start in a new town for senior year and she's never been more excited.
Relationships: Gigi Goode/Crystal Methyd, Jackie Cox/Jan Sport, Nicky Doll/Jaida Essence Hall
Comments: 133
Kudos: 107





	1. "I'm Gigi Goode"

"Gigi! Wake up! You don't want to be late on your first day!"

These words caused Gigi's eyes to shoot open and an excited smile to form on her face. She had never felt so thrilled to go to school in her life. And she especially didn't think she'd be so pumped up to go to a new school, on her first day of senior year, but she was. She was almost exploding with euphoria as she got out of bed and prepared to put on the outfit that she had prepared the night before, leaving it nicely folded on top on a box that she'd not yet unpacked. This was the part she did not always like. Getting dressed. So she tried to get it over with as quickly as possible. She got changed into a slim fitting black dress that started just below her collarbones and ended midway down her thigh. It had long sleeves that went all the way to her hands, also acting as gloves without the fingertips. Her wavy black hair sat at her exposed collarbones just the way she liked it. She looked over at herself in her vanity mirror and smiled, before sitting down in front of it and doing her makeup for the day. She loved doing her makeup, she was good at it, and it made her more confident in herself. She finished off her look with a pair of shin-length boots that she loved. She looked at herself in the mirror once again, smiling before picking up her phone from her bedside table and heading downstairs to the kitchen. 

As soon as she walked into the room, she noticed her father leaving without a word, causing her to sigh as she sat down at the table. Her mother frowned at her as they both heard the front door shut, with the sound of her father's car driving away seconds later. 

"Does he have to do this every time?" Gigi asked, leaning her elbow on the table and resting her chin on one hand while checking her phone with the other

"I'm sorry Gigi," Her mother replied as she placed a small plate of toast onto the table in front of her daughter "this is just hard for him right now."

"I know." Gigi nodded, looking up at her mom with disappointed eyes "I just wish he'd stop leaving the room every time I came in. It hurts."

Her mom nodded understandingly and sat down across from her, eating her own breakfast without a word. Gigi just looked down at her phone while she ate, not having much to talk about after what had just happened with her father. She checked her social medias, making sure no one but her friends were following her on any of them. She had to block way too many people from her old school in LA after she had come out due to the harassment she faced online and she just hoped more than anything that wouldn't happen this year.

"You look very pretty today Gigi," her mother stated with a cheery smile "You look very dolled up!"

"Thanks mom," Gigi smiled back, obviously happy with the compliment, she loved being called pretty, ever since she was a child. She always hated 'handsome', an adjective that most people used for her all her life. Pretty just fit more. It felt better. It felt right.

"We should get going now sweetie," her mother spoke after a minute or two of silence "go get your things and I'll meet you in the car."

Gigi nodded and left the room quickly, running back upstairs to get her bag and keys. Once she picked them up, she put the keys in the bag which she then threw over her shoulder and made her way downstairs and outside the house as quick as she could. She hopped into her mother's car and put her seat belt on before looking at herself in the side mirror, making sure there was nothing wrong with her hair or makeup. She excitedly talked to her mom the entire ride to the school, telling her how great this year was going to be and how excited she was to go as herself instead of somebody else like she's had to do all her life. Once they parked the car, Gigi looked out the window at the school in awe. It was big, not as big as her old school, but a lot bigger than she thought it was going to be. 

"Have a great day sweetie," Her mom smiled as she kissed her head "now remember, no matter what anyone says to you. You know who you are and that's all that matters."

Gigi's mom was the best with words in her opinion, she always knew what to say to make her daughter beam with confidence, and she couldn't be more grateful for that. When she got out of the car she felt instantly nervous, but not for the reasons she'd feel every other year. She was just able to be nervous about being a new kid and not knowing where to go. She walked towards the building and waved as her mom drove away, looking around at the students around her and noticing a lot of very different types of people. Missouri wasn't different to LA in that way. There's always going to be the same types of people, same cliques and rivalries. Something that every school had in common. As she was walking, she felt someone crash into her, almost making her fall, but she kept her composure and turned around to see a group of girls laughing at another girl who was now on the ground, her curly ginger hair covering her face. 

"Are you okay?" Gigi asked, obviously concerned as she looked at the girl, holding her hand out to help her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" The girl answered as she got pulled up by Gigi, she moved her hair out of her face to reveal or over the top makeup and silver septum piercing that had little dice instead of balls on the ends of it, she turned around to the girl's still laughing behind her and flipped them off, rolling her eyes as she turned back to Gigi "This is why you shouldn't skate in crowded places." 

Gigi raised an eyebrow and looked down at the ground and spotted a neon spray-painted skateboard that had rolled off to the wall near the front doors of the school.

"Are you new?" the ginger asked, tilting her head slightly and squinting, trying to make out Gigi's face

"Yeah, I am," Gigi answered with a confident smile "I just moved here from LA."

"You look like a Cali girl," Crystal chuckled "I'm Crystal by the way!"

"Gigi," Gigi giggled, intrigued by the ginger's quirkiness. 

The two looked at each other in silence for a few seconds, before one of Crystal's friend's approached them. This girl was a tall blonde, wearing an outfit made entirely out of purple clothes.

"Crys come on!" The blonde said very enthusiastically " _You_ were the one that wanted to get to the art room before classes start!"

"Oh! Right!" Crystal responded as she turned to the blonde, then back to Gigi "I'll see you around Geeg!"

The nickname made Gigi's heart flutter for reasons she couldn't explain.

"Yeah, see you, Crys." She smiled as the two girls walked towards the rest of their friends, then walked into the school building, Crystal remembering to grab her skateboard right before they walked in.

Gigi walked in shortly afterwards and let out a relieved sigh as she saw a sign pointing towards the head office, the one that she was told to go to in order to get the timetable and locker combination for the year. Once she approached the office, she knocked on the door and entered once she heard a faint 'Come in' from the other side. There was a man sitting at a desk at the end of the room, typing things into a computer, his nametag reading 'Mr. Matthews'.

"Good morning!" He greeted with a smile far too energetic for this early in the morning "What do you need, hun?"

"I was told to come here for my schedule," Gigi answered with a small, far less energetic, smile "My name's Gigi Goode."

"Well you're at the right place sweetie," Mr. Matthews replied, holding up a few pieces of paper in his hand "this here is your schedule, locker combination and a map of the school so you know where you're going."

"Thanks so much," Gigi smiled as she took the papers from him

"No problem honey," He said, shaking his head "if you need anything just come find me here!"

Gigi nodded and thanked him again as she left the office, looking at her schedule and map to figure out where she had to go. When she figured out where she needed to be, she immediately headed there, eager to start the day and meet some new people. Once she got to her class, she realised that the door was open and walked in, no one paying her any attention as class hadn't started yet. She sat down at a seat near the window and set her bag under her desk, putting the paper with her locker number into her bag and inspecting the next few classes on her schedule. After a few minutes, she noticed more students entering the classroom, all talking among themselves and catching up. Gigi felt a little lonely at the fact that she had no one to be catching up with, but she shook off that feeling and tried to think of something more positive, like the fact that she hadn't received a single dirty look so far in the past 20 minutes that she's been in the school, which was a lot longer than the went every day in her old school. She looked out the window for a minute, observing the field outside along with a few courts and a gym building. She didn't snap back to reality until she heard a voice beside her, causing her to look in the direction of where it was coming from. There was a somewhat tall, darker skinned, black haired girl with glasses standing there with a polite smile.

"Sorry, what?" Gigi asked, her eyebrows furrowing as she felt guilty for not listening to what had just been said

"I asked if I could sit here," The girl answered, pointed to the desk beside her

"Oh, yeah sure! Go ahead!" Gigi smiled with a nod

"I'm Jackie by the way," The girl, Jackie, stated, extending her hand out to Gigi

"Hi," Gigi replied, extending her own hand and shaking the girl's "I'm-

"Gigi, right?" Jackie interrupted, raising an eyebrow "My friend crashed into you earlier, Crystal."

Gigi could only chuckle as a response, a light blush appearing on her cheeks as she remembered the ginger. She wanted to say more, possibly ask about Crystal, but before she could even think of something to say, the teacher entered the room and the class had started. 

"Good morning students!" the teacher greeted, she was a tall, slim, bald woman that wore a tight black dress and had little circular glasses that sat at the end of her nose "My name is Ms. Velour and I'm going to be your AP English teacher for this year. Now, since it's only the first day and I don't know all of you, this class will be an introduction class. I'll introduce myself first then I'll ask each of you to give me a brief introduction as well! Now to start us all off, my name is Ms. Sasha Velour, I teach AP English as well as AP History and this is my second year teaching here at Branson High." 

Gigi listened intently at all the introductions from her peers so she could prepare herself for her own, everyone's was mostly just their name, age and maybe favourite food, subject, show etc, so she felt as if her pressure to make a perfect first impression was fading slightly. It quickly got to Jackie's introduction and Gigi smiled as the girl started to speak.

"Hi, my name's Jackie Cox, I'm seventeen year's old and I am the current chairperson of the school's student council." Jackie stated confidently

"Thank you Jackie! Now onto the young lady beside you."

Gigi felt a confident smile grow on her face upon hearing the words 'young lady' from a stranger. She knew she looked like a girl, the way she wanted to look, but something about those two words gave her all the validation and confidence she needed to eradicate any anxiety she previously had about talking in front of the class.

"I'm Gigi, Gigi Goode, I'm seventeen and I just moved here from LA a few weeks ago."

"Wow, LA?" Ms Velour repeated "What made your family decide to move so far?"

"My mom got a huge job offer her that she couldn't turn down, so we had no other choice but to move!"

The next few classes were basically the same as that one, just introductions and very basic work, which relaxed Gigi a lot. She decided to walk straight to the cafeteria as soon as lunch started, hoping to get something at least half decent to eat. She realised a lot of students did the same as she pushed the doors open, as the whole room was packed with students. She looked over at the line to get food and sighed at how overly long it was and decided she'd be better off waiting until she got home to eat something. She turned around to leave, but right as she touched the door she heard a familiar voice calling her name. She looked around in the direction of the voice and noticed Jackie sitting at a small, circular table with the friends she had seen that morning, Crystal being one of them. Gigi smiled and made her way over to them, giving them all a wave as she approached them closer.

"You can sit with us if you want!" The purple covered blonde from earlier stated, pointing to an empty seat beside her with her head, Gigi gave her a small 'thanks' and sat down in between the blonde and a dark skinned girl with bright red hair cut into a curly bob 

"Guys, this is Gigi, the one Crystal tried to murder this morning." Jackie chuckled, taking a bite of the salad that sat in front of her, Gigi could feel the blush on her cheeks again as the rest of the girls laughed 

"Hey, it was an _accidental_ attempt of murder!" Crystal protested with raised hands "I'd never kill a newbie on purpose!"

"I'm Jan!" The purple blonde announced, completely ignoring Crystal and turning to Gigi excitedly "We kind of met earlier!"

"Don't mind her," The darker-skinned girl suggested, noticing how taken aback Gigi was by Jan enthusiasm "She's a cheerleader, she has too much energy for this world."

"That's Heidi," Jackie stated, pointing her head at the girl who just spoke

"The one and only baby," the girl, Heidi, laughed, doing hair flicking motions with her hands

"Damn ok, y'all just don't care about me then," Another girl, one with very bold and exaggerated makeup said with a fake pout

"Huh? Did you guys hear that?" Crystal asked, looking around at the girls "Maybe it's just the wind."

The unnamed girl rolled her eyes and hit Crystal's arm, causing them both to laugh as the ginger faked being in pain.

"Just call me Rock," The girl smiled, looking at Gigi, gaining a confused look from her "It's short for Roxanne, but that's kinda gay."

"So are you!" All of her friends said in unison, taking Gigi aback once again.

The group was fairly loud, not like the group she used to hang around with back in LA, who were only loud at parties or when hanging out privately. Gigi could definitely tell that this group was the group of weird kids, a group that she probably would've never even thought of associating with back in LA. They were all nice though, despite the fact that they made her somewhat nervous with their high energy and loud volume. She felt like she could easily get along with them if she kept talking to them. Somehow, in the middle of their many conversations, they started discussing social media and Gigi ended up following the group of girls on instagram, being followed back by them all soon after. Gigi had made sure that not a single picture of her from before could be found through her account, she archived all of her old posts and untagged herself from any post that had her old self in it. The last thing she wanted was for anyone in her new school or new town to find out who she used to be, so she did everything in her power to hide that from them. 

When she got home from school that day, she set her bag beside the door and walked into the kitchen, followed by her mom, who drove her home. The two sat down at the table with excited grins, Gigi being excited to talk and her mom being excited to listen.

"Okay, tell me everything!" Her mom demanded enthusiastically

"Well, right after you left someone crashed into me!" Gigi laughed "Her name's Crystal, she seems really cool! She wears all these weird clothes, lots of jewellery and she even has a nose piercing! I met her friends too, they were all really nice. We're all following each other on instagram now, so hopefully I get to start talking to them more!" 

Gigi's mom nodded intently as she listened to her daughter ramble on about her day, before her words were interrupting by the buzzing of her phone in her bag. She raised an eyebrow as Gigi pulled out her phone and smiled widely, looking more excited than ever.

**Cryst4l_m3thyd:** Hey Geeg! It's Crystal from school!!!!! I'm w the gang rn and we're gonna head into town for a while if you wanna come???

"Crystal just asked me to hang out with her and her friends!" She stated, showing her mom the texts "Can I go? Please?"

"How can I say no to you Gigi?" Her mom giggled with a nod "Ask them where they'll be and I'll drop you off

Before Gigi could even start typing a response, she noticed another message from Crystal.

**Cryst4al_m3thyd:** if you live close we can pick you up :D

Gigi was almost bouncing with joy as she typed back a quick text

**thegigigoode:** omg ofc I wanna come!! here's my address, text me when youre here xx

With that, Gigi stood up and excitedly paced the kitchen with her mom, both giggling like idiots as they waited for the girls to arrive. Gigi had never been more excited to be hanging out with people, but this was her first time hanging out with people as Gigi. Just Gigi. Nothing other than Gigi. She was ecstatic at the thought of being with a group of girls and being seen as one of them instead of an outsider. She squealed when she heard a car horn honk from outside the house and bounced a little before taking a deep breath to regain her composure, though she was unable to get her overly excited smile off of her face as she mom handed her jacket to her and she left the house. She waved towards the minivan that was parked outside, and walked towards it, seeing the girls waving back to her from inside. When she opened the door to the back seat, she immediately got pulled in my rock and Crystal, which completely caught her off guard.

"What was that for?" Gigi laughed, raising an eyebrow at them as she adjusted the top of her dress that Crystal and Rock and basically yanked seconds before

"Speed!" Crystal giggled proudly, putting her arm over the headrest on Gigi's seat, almost as if she was attempting to put her arm around her shoulders

"Are we in a rush?" Gigi asked, raising an eyebrow at Jan, who shook her head from the drivers seat

"Those two are just impatient," She laughed, starting up the car again and beginning to drive into the town

"You ever been thrifting Geeg?" Crystal asked, her arm still behind the much taller girl's neck

"Yeah, a good few times!" Gigi answered honestly "My friends and I back in LA used to thrift some old clothes and do them up so they'd look better and more fashion forward I guess."

"We do that too!" Crystal announced, moving her arm away from Gigi to take her phone from her bag and show her some pictures of clothes she'd thrifted and altered, Gigi looked at the pictures in awe, even though their styles were drastically different, Gigi could appreciate all the altercations the ginger had made to her outfits. After all, they suited her really well and Gigi couldn't imagine her in anything other than alternative clothing. 

Once the group of girls got out of the minivan, they were in and out of every thrift store in their line of sight. There were probably only about fiver or six of them in the whole town as it was quite small, but they definitely found some treasures in them. While they were in the last thrift store on their invisible list, Gigi felt her stomach sink as she was looking around for pants with the rest of the girls, only to realise that -like in every store- there were no women's pants her size, so she had to go to the menswear in search of some, which made her feel sick. She hated even looking at the men's section now. She didn't want to be anywhere near it anymore. And her distaste for it was more than likely picked up on by Crystal as she approached the black haired girl with a worried frown.

"You good?" The ginger asked, placing her hand on Gigi's skinny forearm

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gigi lied, forcing a smile as she looked at the girl in front of her "I just hate men's pants."

"They're pretty ugly most of the time." Crystal smiled, trying to lighten Gigi up "If you want, we can leave now? We were gonna go to the mall, but if you wanna go home we can drop you off."

"The mall sounds good," Gigi replied, her smile becoming a little more genuine "thanks."

Crystal squeezed Gigi's forearm then let go of her as she began walking away, towards the rest of the group with Gigi following behind. They collectively agreed to go to the mall and made there way there in just a few short minutes. As soon as they walked through the automatic doors, Crystal was almost running towards the food court, followed by the rest of the girls. Gigi looked around curiously as everyone ordered their food at the counter, before getting pulled out of her thoughts by Crystal calling her name.

"Geeg, what do you want?" Crystal asked with a smile

"Um," Gigi hesitated, feeling slightly embarrassed as she hadn't even read the menu that hung above the counter "I'll just have what you're having."

Crystal gave her a thumbs up and ordered for her, paying for it as soon as Gigi looked away. The group of girls sat at a booth in the corner of the foot court, talking among themselves as usual before Crystal took out her phone and opening the camera. She held out her phone and tilted it so everyone would fit in the frame and took a few pictures, everyone doing quirky poses while Gigi just did a cute wink while leaning her face on her hand that was propped up onto the table by her elbow.

"Y'all do the gayest poses" Crystal laughed as she looked at the picture "me and Gigi are the only presentable ones!"

"Crys, don't even compare yourself to Gigi right now!" Jackie laughed "She's basically a model!"

Crystal opened her mouth to defend herself but was cut off by their orders being called at the counter. She gave an exaggerated grunt and crossed her arms. 

"Rock, come on, me and you are on slave duty this time!" Crystal stated as her and the other girl stood up and headed towards the counter to collect their orders. When they got back, they handed everyone everything they asked for and Gigi raised a brow at the items given to her, a slice of cheesecake and a milkshake. She looked at Crystal, who had the same things then shrugged to herself, before picking up a fork.

"This is the best cheesecake you'll ever it," Crystal stated, eating a piece of her own cheesecake "I am so sexually attracted to this cheesecake. You will be too."

"I didn't know the cheesecake was called Gigi Goode" Heidi laughed, causing Crystal to hit her arm

"Fuck off!" Crystal rolled her eyes then looked at Gigi apologetically "They think that just because I'm gay that I'm instantly in love with every girl I meet."

"I've been there," Gigi chuckled, before noticing the curious eyes looking at her "um, well, back in LA, my friends would make jokes like that every time I met anyone, cause I identified as bi at the time."

"Do you still identify as bi?" Jackie asked curiously, eating a fry from the small plate of them she ordered

"No." Gigi answered, shaking her head "I only like girls."

The other girls nodded in understanding and gave her reassuring smiles that it was okay to be herself around them. She felt genuinely supported by them and it warmed her heart. The girls were all silent for a while, but it was comfortable, until Gigi finally took a bite of the cheesecake and groaned, causing the girls to look at her again.

"This is some sexy cheesecake," Gigi nodded, covering her mouth with her hand to avoid the girls seeing her speak with her mouth full "I wish I was as sexy as this cheesecake!"

"I told you!" Crystal laughed, taking a bite of her own

"I hope you'll all attend my wedding with this cake," Gigi laughed "we are in love!"

After a long day of banter with her new friends, Gigi was finally back home, waving goodbye to everyone as Jan drove them off in her minivan and closing the front door as she stepped inside. She dropped her bag beside the door and walked straight towards the kitchen to greet her mom like usual.

"I'm home!" Gigi announced as she opened the door, surprised to not see her mother, but her dad, sitting at the table and drinking coffee "Oh, sorry, I thought mom was in here."

"Can you get out of that now?" Her dad asked, gesturing towards her outfit and makeup "I just got home from work. _I_ need to relax now Steven."

"Gigi." Was the only thing that she could respond with, feeling like there was a lump in her throat as she tried to forget the name she had just been called seconds ago "It's Gigi."

Her dad rolled her eyes and stood up, leaving the kitchen and entering the living room, closing the door behind him so hard that Gigi jumped. She could feel her eyes fill up and the only option she had was to go upstairs and lock herself in her room like she did every time her dad called her that. She sat down in front of her vanity and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down as she looked into the mirror.

"I'm Gigi." She assured herself "Not Steven."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: use of homophobic slurs (not in the context of bullying, just friends joking around) and descriptions of a panic attack

Gigi woke up the next morning to the sound of her phone vibrating on her bedside table, she groaned as she turned around to see who was calling her and immediately sprang up with she saw the pink screen with **cryst4l_m3thyd** written in the center. She flicked up with her thumb to answer and immediately cleared her throat, praying that she wouldn't sound too husky this morning.

"Hey Geeg!" Crystal greeted, her face popping up on the screen

"Morning!" Gigi greeted back, her voice sounding raspy "You woke me up."

"I can tell," Crystal snickered "your morning voice is hot."

Gigi rolled her eyes and stood up, keeping her phone in her hand so she could talk to the ginger on her screen. Even though she looked unphased by the compliment, she could feel her stomach turn to knots.

"Why'd you call me?" Gigi asked, the phone being held up just below her chin, making Crystal only able to her eyes, nose and a bit of her mouth "It's pretty early."

"Well Jan drives us to school every morning," Crystal started, holding her phone in the same position as Gigi and showing off her unusual makeup "so we wanted to know if you wanna get picked up?"

"Sure," Gigi smiled, placing her phone beside her vanity's mirror as she sat down in front of it, showing off her baby blue silk nightgown that she had slept in the night before "promise not to murder me though?"

"No can do," Crystal laughed, shaking her head "we might decide to have a fun murder party on the way to school, you'll never know."

Gigi laughed at Crystal's words, she was so weird, so quirky, _very_ cute. She appreciated the fact that she had someone like Crystal to talk to that morning, to get her mind off of the interaction with her dad from the night before.

"Gigi! Get up! You have to get ready for school!" Her mother called from outside the room, making Crystal laugh 

"Yeah Gigi, get up!" Crystal repeated, finding herself absolutely hilarious

"Crys, shut up," Gigi laughed, starting to apply her makeup

It went quiet after a few minutes of the two girls talking and laughing with each other, which made Gigi feel a bit nervous, she looked over at her phone only to see Crystal watching her with a small smile. She smiled back and raised an eyebrow at the ginger, confused about the silent staring.

"You're pretty," Crystal said bluntly, causing Gigi's cheeks to turn a light shade of pink as she continued applying her makeup "sorry if that sounds weird. It's true though!"

"Thanks Crys," Gigi replied, hoping that her giddy smile wasn't too obvious, which it really was "I need to get dressed now, call me when you get here?"

"Sure thing!" was the last thing Crystal said before hanging up, Gigi let out a breath she didn't even realise she was holding in and smiled confidently to herself before getting dressed for school that day. She put on a short white dress that she had made a few months before the move, it had puffy pirate sleeves that went down to her wrists that she absolutely adored, though she was worried that the dress might have been too short, as it ended at her upper thigh. She decided that white would be her primary colour today, as she paired the dress with a pair of white tights and her favourite pair of white pumps. She gave herself a twirl as she looked in the mirror and smiled confidently. She quickly ran downstairs, knocking on the door of the kitchen before walking in as a way to warn whoever was in there that she was entering.

"Morning Gigi," Her mom smiled, before raising an eyebrow at her daughter "why did you knock?"

"Just in case dad was in here," Gigi answered, sitting down at the table and looking at her phone "he said the name last night."

"I'm sorry sweetie," Her mom frowned, giving her daughter disappointed eyes "do you want me to talk to him about it? I know you hate hearing that name."

"It's not that I just hate it," Gigi stated, glancing at her mom from the corner of her eye "it's not my name, I shouldn't _have_ to hear it. He should know that by now."

"I'll talk to him about it when he's home from work, okay?" Her mom assured her, sitting down beside her and putting her hand on her knee "We're gonna get through this, but it might take some time. We just need to be patient right now."

Gigi sighed and nodded, looking away from her mom and down at her phone again. She knew her dad wasn't as bad as others, but she wished he was better than he was currently. She hated the fact that he rarely spoke to her after she came out, or only ever used her name around her mother or her friends or only allowed her to go to school as Gigi because it was her senior year. She was just grateful to have her mother, the woman who supported her the most in her whole family. She had a lot of support on her mom's side of the family, but she was almost certain that no one on her dad's side even knew about her transition. Her mother did her best to alleviate her daughter of her dysphoria as much as she could, which Gigi was beyond grateful for, but she knew that nothing would completely eradicate those disgusting feelings she experienced on a daily basis. 

She was eating toast her mother had set on the table when her phone started to buzz, she looked down at the screen and smiled, seeing that the ginger was calling her again.

"Hey faggot, we're outside!" Crystal shouted into her phone, making Gigi's eyes widen in shock as her mom dropped her own toast onto her plate

"Crys, my mom is here!" Gigi laughed, feeling her face grow red with embarrassment, causing all the other girls with Crystal to laugh as well

"Oh god," Crystal whined, her friends in the minivan making fun of her "sorry Mrs. Goode! I promise I'm not homophobic! I'm gay!"

Gigi's mom just sat with her mouth agape, genuinely shocked at the language her daughter's new friend had used, Gigi just kept laughing, her face almost completely red. Her mom didn't say anything until her daughter had hung up the call, and even then it wasn't much.

"They seem nice." were the only words that came out of her mouth until Gigi left. Gigi felt absolutely mortified and hoped her mom wouldn't bring that up in conversation later on that day.

When Gigi stepped out of the house, she heard Crystal whistling at her from the minivan. She rolled her eyes and walked towards the van, flipping off the ginger through the window before hopping in beside her.

"I hate all of you," Gigi laughed, rolling her eyes as she put her backpack on her lap "so does my mom."

"Who doesn't?" Rock shrugged

"I can't believe you called her a faggot in front of her mom!" Jan almost shouted, trying her hardest not to laugh

"Are you really surprised though?" Jackie asked from the passenger side seat, turning to the side so she could face the girls in the back of the van "I think Crystal's called us the worst things under the sun in front of the worst of people!"

"Yeah, it's called being homophobic," Crystal responded, dancing with her hands which resulted in laughter from her friends

"Watch out Gigi, you're gonna get hate crimed any second now." Rock warned sarcastically

"I've had at coming," Gigi joked back, crossing her legs under her backpack "I gotta add some spice to my life here and there."

Crystal shot her a wink and laughed as a response to her comment, which made Gigi's heart flutter for the girl once again for reasons she couldn't explain.

The day went by pretty slow from there, most -if not all- of Gigi's classes felt drawn out unlike the classes she had the previous day. She didn't have any of her new friends in her first few classes, which probably made them more boring. She didn't even open her mouth to speak in any of those classes unless she was called for attendance. It wasn't until her fourth period of the day, Spanish, that she saw someone she recognised. The blonde that seemed to really like purple, Jan. As soon as she walked into the room, Jan called her over, almost too loudly, as their classmates gave them confused looks. She quickly walked over to the blonde, throwing her bag down on the desk beside her and sitting down.

"I didn't know anyone in my other classes this morning!" Gigi complained as she sat her bag on her lap and opening it to take out her book "It was so boring!"

"You've only been living here for what? A few weeks?" Jan asked, rolling her eyes at her black haired friend "Of course you wouldn't know anyone!"

"I know I know," Gigi sighed "I just wish one of you guys were there so I wouldn't be bored out of my mind!"

"Yeah, we're great" Jan joked, flicking her hair back dramatically. She gasped after a few seconds, almost startling Gigi, and turned to her with wide, beaming eyes "You should join a club! That way you can meet some more people, yknow?" 

"I'm not really that into clubs," Gigi shrugged "I don't even know what kind this school has."

"Well, there's a good few! There's arts, music, sport, anything you can think of really!" Jan stated with an excited smile "I know Crystal and Rock are in the art club! And I'm on the cheerleading squad! But if you're into more academic stuff, just talk to Jackie, she's in a bunch of smart people clubs."

Gigi was starting to feel a little overwhelmed at all the information Jan was giving her and she could feel her hands start to sweat. Her leg started to shake as Jan continuously rambled on about the clubs and other extracurriculars, she had desperately wanted class to start more than anything else at that current point in time, but the teacher was running very late and she knew she'd have to keep listening to the blonde until someone stopped her. To her luck, a tan, black haired girl sitting in front of them turned around to face them, and told Jan to be quiet.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help out the newbie!" Jan defended, crossing her arms over her chest "Maybe I could convince her to join the cheer squad!"

The black haired girl, still left unnamed, looked over at Gigi with a jerked brow and looked her up and down, causing Gigi's nervously shaking leg to speed up.

"Try outs are on Friday after school," Were the only words the girl said to Gigi before turning back around to talk to another girl. Gigi looked at Jan and was about to say something before getting cut off by their teacher finally entering the classroom and beginning the lesson.

Gigi had learned her lesson from the day before about the cafeteria, that the line would always be too long, so she brought her own lunch this time. Just a simple sandwich and a bottle of water. She was never into big portions of food, but she ate enough to keep her going throughout the day. Most of the girls she hung out with were the same, minus Crystal and Rock, who probably ate more in one sitting than Gigi did in a day. Today, the two over the top girls were sharing a big bag of popcorn, and Gigi couldn't help but watch the way Crystal ate. It wasn't in a weird way. Or at least it wasn't meant to be. She just enjoyed observing the ginger, the way she moved, the way she spoke, she was just so interesting to Gigi. Gigi had no idea why she was so fascinated in her, she thought maybe it was because of how different she was to anyone else she'd ever met, she stood out among all of the other people Gigi had met in her seventeen years of life like a sore thumb, but a good sore thumb?

Gigi didn't realise how long she had been watching Crystal until the girl looked at her with a tilted head and waved a hand in front of the black haired girl's face.

"Hello?" Crystal called, drawing out the 'o' as long as possible "Earth to Geeg!"

"Huh?" Gigi responded, shaking her head to snap back into reality "Sorry, I think I zoned out."

"Think?" Heidi rolled her eyes with a playful scoff "You were sitting there like a zombie!"

"Ok, I was definitely zoned out," Gigi giggled, feeling her cheeks getting warm "today's been exhausting."

"I know right?" Jackie responded, setting down the fork she was using to eat from her -seemingly daily- salad "It's only the second day and I'm tired of this already!"

"Imagine being tired," Crystal said jokingly with a little smirk on her face "I took a nap in Spanish earlier."

"You could probably pass that class in your sleep anyway," Jackie laughed, rolling her eyes "Ms. Carrion probably doesn't even care what you do in that class anymore!" 

"Ms. Mateo would slaughter us if we even thought about napping in her class!" Jan groaned, looking at Gigi "It's homophobic how we weren't put in Crystal's class!"

"You can't have too many gays in one classroom," Rock stated sarcastically, shaking her head "the school would simply combust!"

The table filled with laughter, causing Rock to confidently tell a few more jokes, most of which being so awful that the girls would groan before letting out disappointing laughs. Gigi loved being around them all already, she felt safe with them even though she barely knew them. The chaotic energy each of the girl's shared was amusing to Gigi, who was known for being the 'weirdo' of her friend groups back in LA. Gigi considered texting her old group chat of friends from back home once she got home from school as she hadn't spoken to them in a good few days, but she didn't promise herself that she would, in case something else came up.

"You any good at Spanish Gigi?" Jackie asked, bringing Gigi back to reality once again as well as bringing back the earlier conversation about the language

"Nope," Gigi chuckled with a shrug "you should've seen me in my old school, my teacher was basically giving me the answers for every piece of homework or tests cause I just didn't learn anything."

"Maybe Crystal can tutor you then?" Jackie suggested, trying to hide the smirk that was forming on her lips "I know she wouldn't mind."

"Would you?" Gigi asked, looking at Crystal and trying to avoid the smirking Persian girl sitting across from her and her confusing facial expression

"Yeah, sure!" Crystal answered somewhat nervously with a small smile, leaving Gigi even more confused "Just let me know when you need help!"

The rest of their lunch went the same as any other interaction with the group, the laughed and chatted the entire time, most of the girls not even finishing their lunch by the end of it. When they all parted ways to get to class, Gigi figured out that she had Art with Rock and Crystal, which relieved her of the anxiety she was feeling about not knowing people in her classes. She was excited to be able to walk to classes with people, even though the act of walking itself was probably the least exciting thing to do. She didn't say much on the short walk to the classroom and neither did Crystal as Rock did all the speaking, which didn't bother either of them, as they were both fairly quiet people anyway. When they finally got to the class, they decided to sit at the back of the classroom, which was the best place to sit in Rock's opinion. Their teacher was already there when they walked into the room and gave them all quick hellos as they sat down and waited for the rest of the students to come. In only one or two minutes, every seat had been taken and the class was finally ready to begin, so their teacher, Ms. Couleé, decided to call attendance, making Gigi realise that she didn't actually know the last names of her two new friends, or at least she thought she didn't until their teacher announced Crystal's name. 

"Crystal" Ms Couleé called, "Crystal Methyd?" the name resulted in a few snickers and chuckles from the class and Gigi raised both her brows at the ginger as she responded with a quick 'here' 

"Wait, your last name is _actually_ Methyd?" Gigi asked, trying to hold back her giggles "I thought that was just a joke for your instagram!"

"My parents are Mexican!" Crystal defended playfully, crossing her arms over her chest as she scrunched her nose like an angry rabbit "They didn't know what my name would mean!"

"The unfortunate reality of foreign parents," Rock chuckled, resting her head on her arms that were folded on the desk "I'm just glad mine gave me a normal name!"

Gigi was about to let out a chuckle before she heard Ms. Couleé's next words.

"Steven?"

Gigi felt her entire body tense up, all the air in her body simply disappearing as she heard the name, praying that there was just a boy in the class called that. Her mind didn't stop racing, asking questions like _'did dad change it back?', 'do they have the wrong list?', 'what do I do now? they all know. Everyone knows now'_ and she started to feel like she couldn't breathe. Her hands started feeling numb and clammy, and her legs started to feel like jelly. _Fuck_ was the only word running around her head now. Fuck fuck fuck. 

Before she could even think, she stood up from her seat and quickly ran out the door of the room and loudly closing the door behind her, making most of the class, especially Crystal and Rock, very concerned. As soon as she stepped outside of the classroom, she leaned against the wall beside the door and tried to calm herself down, which she ended up failing to do successfully. It had been a while since the last time she felt this way and she didn't miss it one bit. She could feel a ball of air caught in her throat and she almost felt as if she was dying. She didn't know what to do in these situations anymore other than just wait. All she could do was cover her face with her hands and wait. And after what felt like an eternity of suffering by herself, she heard the door of the classroom open and close, then the soft whispers of the ginger she was sitting with just moments prior. 

"Are you okay?" Crystal whispered, only gaining a shaking head from Gigi. Crystal stood there for a second, listening to Gigi hyperventilating, before softly placing her hand on the black haired girl's bicep "I'm gonna bring you to the bathroom, okay? Are you okay to walk?" 

All Gigi could do was nod as she continuously tried catching her breath. She allowed Crystal to lead her to the bathroom by lightly pulling at her arm. Once they walked in, Crystal got some toilet paper from a stall and used it to wipe away the tears that were forming in her friends eyes, being careful not to ruin her beautifully done makeup. 

"Breathe with me, okay?" Crystal said, moving the tissue away from Gigi's face, Gigi nodded again, still struggling to breathe. The ginger placed her hand on Gigi's arm again as she tried to regulate her breathing by breathing in for four seconds and out through eight. Gigi held Crystal's hand and closed her eyes as they breathed together and Crystal squeezed her hand softly, giving the girl a soft smile even if she couldn't see it. The black haired girl was finally able to breathe properly after a few moments of taking deep breaths with her ginger friend, and after a few seconds she looked at her with a sad smile. She felt awful for worrying her new friend, but didn't have much time to think of her guilt as the ginger pulled her into a tight hug.

"Thank you" Gigi whispered, resting her chin on Crystal's shoulder

"Don't worry about it," Crystal whispered back "do you wanna talk about what happened?"

"It's just.." Gigi started, trying to decide if she should tell her friend the truth or not "Steven."

"What about him?" Crystal asked, backing away and raising a brow, causing Gigi to bite her lower lip

"I, um.." Gigi stuttered, feeling her hands start to sweat again. _No -_ she thought - _I can't let her know_ "I have an ex.. called Steven. Things didn't end well."

Crystal frowned at the girl and held one of her hands, she wasn't the best at comforting people, that was usually Jackie's job in the friend group, but she tried her best, and seeing Gigi smile would be the only thing to make her feel accomplished at that moment. She couldn't explain it, but seeing Gigi in such a state physically hurt her inside and all she wanted to do was hug her and take away her pain. She just wanted to see her smile and be happy. And she would do anything for that to happen, like she would with any of her other friends.

"I'm sorry Geeg," Crystal sighed, squeezing the hand that she was holding and rubbing the girl's knuckles with her thumb "it's gonna be okay, this guy won't bother you like the last one. And if he does, let me know. Me and the girl's will happily beat him senseless."

Crystal's last comment made Gigi let out a breathy laugh, her smile causing Crystal's heart to do flips inside her chest.

"Thanks Crys," 

"No problem Geeg,"

The rest of the day went by just as painfully slow as the first half, and all Gigi wanted to do was go home and forget about everything that happened in art. Jan drove her and the other girls home, which she obviously thanked her for, and gave all of her new friends a quick hug before getting out of the blonde's minivan and walking into her house. When she closed the door, she placed her bag on the floor and walked straight towards the kitchen, where she heard her mom talking quietly. She poked her head through the door, not knocking as her father's car wasn't outside, meaning he wasn't home, and was about to ask her mom who she was talking to when she saw a small dog sitting on the floor. A black and brown dachshund, with a golden coloured collar around its neck. Gigi gasped and smiled brightly and sat down in front of the dog that looked scared out of its mind. 

"Who's this?" Gigi asked, carefully petting the dog's head

"Her name's Nancy!" Her mother answered, just as excited as her daughter "Your father and I picked her out in the shelter about a week after we moved in and we got told we could adopt her after filling out some paperwork!"

"Hi Nancy!" Gigi greeted the dog, doing a slight baby voice as the dog relaxed under her touch "You're beautiful, aren't you?"

"Now we'll have someone to guard the house while we're gone," Her mom chuckled, sitting down at the table and watching her daughter "and some company for when I'm home alone after work."

Gigi slowly but carefully picked up Nancy and placed her in her lap, stroking her fur with a pleased smile "Can I take her up to my room for a bit?"

"Sure, but make sure you bring up some puppy pads" Her mom giggled, pointing towards the big packet of the pads on the counter "you don't want her to make a mess."

Gigi nodded and stood up, still holding Nancy in her arms. She took one of the pads out of the packet from the counter then made her way to her room. She hit the door open with her hip and walked towards her bed, placing the dog on her blanket before placing the puppy pad on the floor at the foot of her bed. Nancy immediately got comfortable in the sheets and curled herself up in them, which Gigi thought was adorable. Before getting relaxed in bed herself, Gigi changed into some more comfortable clothing, a black turtle neck and red pants, cinched with a belt. She had nowhere to be but her house, so she didn't put on a new pair of shoes and just wore a pair of black socks. Once she was changed, she sat down on her bed beside the dog and went on her phone, where she saw several notifications from instagram. Confused, she clicked on one of them and realised that she had been added to a groupchat of the girls from school, which made her smile.

**cryst4l_m3thyd:** omg, is that thegigigoode herself?? lurking in the groupchat??

 **thegigigoode:** nope, this is her dog Nancy 

**backpackjan:** u have a dog???????

 **backpackjan:** send pics

**thegigigoode sent a photo**

Gigi laughed to herself as she looked at the picture she took, it was of Nancy, but with the phone placed below her, facing up to make it look like the dog had taken it, with text that read "this is my phone now, not Gigi's" just above her head.

**backpackjan:** i love her omg shes so cute

 **cryst4l_m3thyd:** nancy ur so sexy ily

 **thegigigoode:** im a dog Crystal

 **cryst4l_m3thyd:** and?

 **sock.m.rakura:** pls dont fuck the dog

 **cryst4l_m3thyd:** damn ok, just because you said so </3

Gigi rolled her eyes at how weird this group chat was after only a short few minutes, it oddly made her feel more comfortable around the group. She was about to put her phone down and possibly watch some TV, when her phone started to buzz. Crystal was calling her again, which made her light up before answering.

"Hey!" Gigi greeted with a smile that was probably bright enough to blind someone

"Woah did Nancy give you your phone back?" Crystal joked, smiling almost as bright as Gigi "Or did you steal it from her?"

"She let me have it back to answer the call," Gigi joked back "she couldn't answer herself cause she doesn't have thumbs."

With the mention of her name, Nancy got up from her spot on the blanket and waddled over to Gigi and sat in her lap, causing Crystal to do an extremely loud 'awww'

"She's so cute isnt she?" Gigi asked, holding her phone out to show her kissing the dogs head

"Yeah, she's the cutest!" Crystal answered, setting her phone down somewhere, probably against the wall and sitting up on her bed, her whole body in view on the call "Nancy's pretty cute too."

"Oh shut up!" Gigi laughed, rolling her eyes as her cheeks turned red, she was never good at receiving compliments, but she was even worse that receiving them from Crystal for some reason "That's so gay."

"Damn, you caught me" Crystal shrugged, covering her eyes with her hand "I'm gay"

The two girls ended up on call for the rest of the day, just laughing and talking until the ungodly hours of the night about everything and nothing at the same time. It had been a while since Gigi had done that with someone, a long while. She missed it. While on the call she found out so many things about the ginger. Her favourite bands, tv shows, movies, clothes, places to hang out.. Basically anything about her that there was to think of, for the most part anyway. Crystal had found out a lot about Gigi as well, but one of the only things the black haired girl would never tell her was the fact that she was trans. It wasn't that she thought Crystal wouldn't be supportive of her identity, but she just didn't want anyone to know in this town, at least not yet.

At this point, both of the girls were lying down in their beds, still in their clothes and makeup from that day and whispering to avoid waking up people in their homes. 

"Hey Gee?" Crystal asked, resulting in a hum from Gigi "When did you come out?"

"What?" Gigi responded, raising an eyebrow at the ginger

"As gay," Crystal clarified "when did you come out?"

"Oh," Gigi paused as she thought "well, I came out as bi when I was... fourteen maybe? But no one believed me, my friends kept telling me that I didn't like guys, that I never have, but at the time I thought I had to like them, because I didn't understand how I could only like girls at the time... And after a while of self reflection, well, self loathing to be telling the truth, I realised that they were right and came out as a lesbian when I was sixteen... What about you?" 

"I was thirteen," Crystal answered, sighing as she recollected on the memories "I really liked this girl who was in the grade above me, Yvie, she was so weird and cool and the only other gay kid I knew at the time. I actually came out accidentally, cause I was telling my mom how much I liked her, but couldn't see her because her family moved away after she finished 8th grade. It was pretty funny, my mom was like 'mija, are you telling me you have _feelings_ for this girl?' and I was just like 'yeah?' without thinking anything of it. She's totally fine with me being gay though, same with my dad, they're the best.." 

"I'm glad they're the best," Gigi smiled, propping her elbow up on her bed and resting her head on her hand "cause you deserve the best Crys."

"What are your parents like?" Crystal asked, crossing her arms behind her head on her pillow

"My mom's my favourite person," Gigi answered, smiling to herself "she's always been so supportive of me, no matter what I did, she was always there. Every morning she tells me the same thing, 'you know who you are and that's all that matters'.. My dad though, he's not as good. I haven't had a real, genuine conversation with him since before I came out. He's just been avoiding the whole thing. And avoiding me too, he even leaves the room whenever I come in now.. And I have to knock so he can leave before he has to see me."

"I'm sorry Gee, that really sucks," Crystal replied lowly "hopefully he comes around. If not, you know what me and the girls will do."

"Thanks Crys," Gigi chuckled, "that means a lot."

"No problem," Crystal responded, echoing Gigi's chuckle "we really should get some sleep now, huh?"

"Yeah, we should," Gigi agreed, trying to hold back a yawn "see you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow."

Once the call had ended, Gigi stood up and walked over to her vanity to remove her makeup before finally going to bed and dreaming about the weird girl with the auburn hair known as Crystal Methyd. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the positivity on the last chapter! It means a lot that people are genuinely enjoying my work, especially when it's work I'm passionate about <3  
> I was going to wait until Monday to post this, but I'm so impatient that I'm deciding to just chapters when I want to cause I cannot stick to a posting schedule to save my life


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for enjoying this fic! I've had so much fun writing it, and getting such positive feedback makes me feel so great <3333 
> 
> tw for a short mention of periods in this chapter!!

Gigi had no idea how it was Friday already. The days had been going by so slowly after Monday that she decided that the week was just never going to end, but she was thankful that it was finally her last day of school for the week, because now she could relax with her first two days off. She was hoping today would be relaxing enough, after all, she didn't have anything important that day, at least that's what she thought before her phone buzzed with a notification.

**backpackjan:** try outs today!!!!! dont forget!!!!!

Gigi let out an overly long sigh as she put her phone down on her vanity, she'd completely forgotten that try outs were today, as well as the fact that she promised the blonde that she'd try out to stop her from whining about it all throughout the Spanish and music class they shared. She had no idea how she could've forgotten how much Jan whined about there not being a lot of people trying out this year, as it felt like a whistle blaring in her ears. She continuously looked down at her phone while applying her makeup, to check if the blonde had sent anything else, which she didn't need to and even if she did, Gigi's phone would've vibrated anyway. As soon as the black haired girl finished applying her makeup, her phone buzzed again. A smile crept up on her face as she looked down at the screen and saw Crystal's username. The two had decided to call each other every morning, which Gigi found comforting. She answered the call without any hesitation like always.

"Hey Gee!" Crystal greeted "Good luck today!"

"So Jan told you, huh?" Gigi asked, propping her phone against the mirror like she did every morning

"She's been telling us all week about how excited she is to see you try out," Crystal answered, though her face wasn't on the screen, so Gigi couldn't see her expression at all "she just hasn't said anything to you cause she didn't want you to freak and bail. She's nice like that sometimes."

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to wear for it," Gigi sighed, putting her face in her hands "I don't think I have anything that I could do cheerleading in."

"Just bring a spare shirt and skirt or something," Crystal replied, sounding further away from her phone than before "I'm sure they don't care what you wear if you're good!"

"What are you doing?" Gigi asked, not even responding to Crystal's answer

"Building a bomb," the ginger answered sarcastically "kidding, I'm just getting ready. I woke up late so I have to do my makeup now."

"Can I see?" Gigi smiled, even though she knew Crystal wouldn't tell "You've seen me put on my makeup."

"Have you even seen me without makeup?" Crystal laughed "You're eyes are gonna burn!"

Gigi rolled her eyes and laughed back, before begging Crystal with a long and childish 'please?' to see her do her makeup, which the ginger obliged to after a few annoying seconds of the drawn out beg. When Crystal picked up her phone, she covered the camera so Gigi still couldn't see her face, and kept it covered while she was obviously trying to find something to lean her phone against, not uncovering the camera until she eventually found something. Gigi almost gasped when she saw the girl bare-faced, she didn't look that different, but it was still shock to see her without her over the top face. 

"Being on a call with no makeup hits different," Crystal chuckled, and Gigi noticed that the girl was in a loose fitting thank top that showed off her tan skin more than Gigi had ever seen it "I'm just glad you didn't hang up as soon as you saw me."

"Why would I?" Gigi asked, raising an eyebrow as she stood up from her vanity and walked towards a door that stood behind her, opening it to reveal a small walk-in closet

"I don't know," Crystal shrugged before letting out a gasp "that's a closet?! I always thought that was just your door! How big is your room?"

"Not that big," Gigi answered, turning around to face the phone that still stood at the mirror "it's not small per say, but my room in LA was bigger.. Now, help me pick out what to wear."

Gigi searched around the closet for some outfits, before picking up two that she had really liked. One was just a black shirt that was cut at the top, starting just below her collarbones like the black dress she'd worn on Monday, with a pair of red pants and a matching red belt with a white buckle. The other was an off white turtle neck paired with a long, pastel yellow skirt. Crystal could tell she definitely had a thing for vintage clothing.

"Both of them would look great on you Geeg," Crystal stated, sounding very enthusiastic, almost in awe "but I really like those pants, so I'm gonna choose that fit."

"Thanks Crys," Gigi smiled, putting the other outfit back on the rack it belonged to "You have no idea how long it takes me to pick an outfit, I usually have to decide the day before, but for some reason I just couldn't decide last night."

"I don't blame you! I'm the same," Crystal stated, somehow almost half way done her makeup already "I know it looks like I just throw on whatever and call it a day, but I like to think about everything before I wear it."

Gigi nodded and sat back down at her vanity, folding her clothes over her arm as she watched the ginger apply her makeup so easily. Gigi definitely thought it'd be difficult or time consuming to apply makeup the way Crystal did, but assumed that the girl had been doing it for so long that it was just simple muscle memory by now. She knew she had to get dressed at some point soon, as her mom had called her to wake her up just under thirty minutes ago, but she didn't want to hang up. She was so fascinated by her friend at this point. Their friendship was blossoming quicker than any friendship Gigi ever had before, it even took a while for her friends in LA to video call her when they first became friends, but they were busier back in LA, so maybe it was just easier to make a friendship quickly in Missouri, where everyone seemed significantly less busy. By the time she had realised she'd been staring, Crystal was looking at her with a smile, making Gigi's cheeks flush a light shade of pink. Crystal didn't say anything this time though, probably just enjoying the comfortable silence between them. Gigi wanted to enjoy it too, but the silence was cut off by Gigi's mom shouting from downstairs, telling her that she had to head to work early and that she'd see Gigi when she got home from school. Gigi stood up and walked to her bedroom door and said goodbye from there, groaning when the front door closed. 

"I have to get dressed," She sighed, walking back over to the vanity, making Crystal realise that she was wearing the baby blue night gown that she seemed to wear every morning "call me when you get here, okay?"

Crystal nodded and smiled at Gigi through her phone, her makeup somehow being almost finished "See you!"

"Bye!"

Once she hung up the call, Gigi sighed once again. She definitely enjoyed the outfit Crystal had picked out that morning, but she didn't want to change into it. She felt gross that morning, not wanting to see her own body at all. When she stripped herself of the nightgown, she was left in a pair of shorts and a tank top that looked like Crystals, except she didn't think she looked as good as Crystal did. Crystal was fairly averaged height for a girl her age, around 5'6 or 5'7 at most, she was significantly shorter than Gigi, the top of her head only reaching Gigi's nose. She had a noticeably curvy body, but was still very thin. She looked the way Gigi wanted to look. Gigi was always the tallest out the girl's she'd meet, standing at around 5'10, and was always scrawny without a single curve. She was just thankful that her waist was small enough to give off the impression of curves when she cinched her outfits with a belt or corset. When Gigi looked at herself in the mirror, she felt sick, that disgusting voice in her head telling her things she wish she never had to hear that morning. ' _You look like a man'_ was the most common sentence it would say to her in times like this, making her feel like her heart was in her throat. She tried to push away that voice as much as she could that morning, she didn't to be upset in front of her new friends again this week, even if she felt like they'd be more than helpful to her. When she took off her tank top, she looked away from the mirror, not wanting to see herself until she had the black top on. She still felt off when she wore the top, and frowned to herself when she picked up the pants. The pants were fairly tight fitted, so she knew she'd have to tuck this morning, an action that made her feel sick to even think of, but it was better than risking anyone seeing something they shouldn't. Once she did that and finished getting dressed, she looked back into the mirror and realised that she actually looked good. She sat her hands on her now-prominent hips and smiled. There was still that voice in her head trying to discourage her, but she tried her best not to listen. She knew she didn't look like a boy anymore, but the thought of someone thinking that she did definitely made that inner voice more vocal.

"I know who I am and that's all that matters." She muttered, quoting the phrase her mom said to her every day, before picking up her phone and heading downstairs to get herself some breakfast. When she opened the door, she was greeted by Nancy sitting in her little dog bed that sat in the corner of the room and gave the dog a quick pet on the head before walking to towards the coffee maker that sat on the counter and making herself a drink to keep her energy up.

Once her coffee was ready, she sat down at the counter with the hot drink in her favourite mug, it was one of those black ones that changes colours or shows a picture when there's a hot drink in it, this one, had a picture of her and her friends from home, Symone and Rosy from the day the three of them went to LA pride to celebrate Gigi coming out. She wore a shoulder length blonde wig, as her natural hair at the time was far too short for her liking, and she wore a black romper that was cinched with a big white belt, along with fishnet tights, lots of jewellery and topped it off with a white faux fur jacket that sat around her shoulders. She loved that outfit a lot, and if it wasn't for the stigma around reusing outfits back at home, she probably would've wore it every day. Symone wore an outfit that was more than likely inspired by the movie Clueless, she wore a yellow tartan cropped shirt, with matching pants and a jacket. And Rosy wore a black Selena t-shirt that she tucked into a black leather skirt, cinched with a black belt and topped off with a faux fur brown coat. Gigi remembered that day like it was yesterday, the excitement of the busy city that was covered in pride flags, posters and banners, the music that filled the streets and the cheering of other people just like her as they watched the parade. That was also the first day she had left the house feeling completely confident, she was just herself the entire time. She was grateful to have friends who supported her like those two, but the thought of them made her feel a bit homesick. Even though she definitely liked Missouri, she still wished she was back in LA most of the time. She was starting to miss the girls more and more as she thought about them, so the only thing she could do was send them a message in their snapchat group that she hadn't looked at in a few days.

"Missing you guys rn </3" was the only thing her message said, as she knew she'd probably start getting emotional if she elaborated on how much she missed them.

She was barely even finished her coffee when her phone started vibrating again with Crystal calling her, she smiled, forgetting the upsetting feeling in her stomach as she answered.

"Hey Geeg, we're outside!" Crystal stated, the other girls chit chatting almost blocking out her voice

"Not gonna call me a faggot again?" Gigi asked, causing one of the girls to snort behind Crystal

"Shut up!" Crystal whined "I said sorry!"

Gigi rolled her eyes as she stood up "I'll be out now," she said, quickly petting Nancy again before leaving the kitchen and grabbing her bag and keys from the hall and heading out the door, locking it behind her and approaching Jan's minivan like she'd been doing every morning for the past few days.

The day had gone by a lot quicker than she thought it would, which she was grateful for, though it also made her anxious, as she knew that the cheerleading try outs would be right after school. She had art last period that day, which she was beyond thankful for, as it was probably the most relaxing way to end the week for her, even if she was still getting concerned glances from her peers after what had happened earlier than week. She tried not to mind them though. She had enough to think about. One thought that floated around in her brain was whether or not she'd do well during her try-outs. She hadn't realised until lunch that she had forgotten to bring a spare change of clothes to try out in, even though she was talking with Crystal about it that morning. Jan however, had a spare change of clothes in her locker, and gave them to Gigi to borrow. Jan was a lot curvier than Gigi, which made the black haired girl nervous to wear the clothes at first, in case they didn't fit, but when she realised that it was just a cropped purple hoodie with a pair of loose fitting gym shorts, she felt a lot better. She had tried them on in the bathroom at lunch to make sure they fit and was definitely relieved to say the least. During art, Gigi sat beside Crystal, the two sitting across from Rock and talked to them about what they had been planning on doing during the weekend while the worked on the new sketchbooks Ms. Couleé had handed the class earlier in the week.

"We have a little tradition that we've been doing since 9th grade," Rock stated, looking up from her sketchbook that was currently covered in lightly drawn doodles "we always stay over at Jan's on the first Saturday of the school year!"

"Yeah!" Crystal agreed, still drawing in her book "After that, other sleepovers just happen whenever. We don't have a lot of traditions other than that I don't think."

"That sounds nice," Gigi smiled, looking down at her sketchbook but not drawing anything in it "I hope you have fun."

Crystal and Rock looked at each other, then at Gigi, causing her to look back at them with a raised brow

"What?" 

"You're not coming?" Crystal asked, tilting her head

"I wasn't asked" Gigi answered, her eyebrows furrowing slightly

"Oh," Rock responded, looking away from the two "she might ask you at try outs later, if she doesn't already assuming you're coming."

"Okay" Gigi replied dryly, causing the two to quiet down for several moments, making her feel guilty

"Jan thinks you're coming," Crystal stated, phone in hand, probably after just texting Jan "she said she must've forgotten to tell you during class."

Before she knew it, class was over and try outs were going to start soon. Gigi packed up her things as agonisingly slow as she could, so she could take her time getting to the PE hall. Crystal and Rock wished her a quick good luck, giving her quick hugs in hopes of easing her anxieties. By the time Gigi had gone to the gym, she saw Jan standing outside of it, wearing a uniform that suited her to a T, it was -obviously- purple, with black stripes around it, and black and white writing that said Branson across the chest. The blonde waved to Gigi as soon as she saw her and ran up to her, bouncing a little on her feet as she talked to her. The blonde was obviously more excited than Gigi, which brought back her previous nervousness. Jan had showed her to the locker room, where she had changed earlier, and told Gigi to change there then head into the gym, which is where Jan would be waiting with the other members that were judging the try outs. Gigi opened the locker room door with shaky hands, her heart felt like it was sinking to her stomach with every step she took and somehow sunk even further when she saw that there were more girls in the locker room changing into their exercise-worthy clothes. All eyes turned to her when the door squeaked open and all she could do was avoid eye contact with everyone as she walked past them all and stood behind a locker so she could change without anyone looking at her. While she was changing from her black top into the hoodie, she could hear one of the other girls speaking to her, making her jump as she quickly pulled on the hoodie and turn to whoever was speaking to her. The girl was tall enough, just a few inches smaller than Gigi. She was a bit heavier in size, but was still well proportioned and had curly blonde hair that sat just above her tan shoulders.

"Huh?" Gigi hummed, furrowing her eyebrows

"Do you have a tampon?" The girl asked, to which Gigi shook her head, causing the girl to grown "How can you be a woman without having tampons?"

This last comment made Gigi feel sick. She assumed the girl had only asked as a dramatic joke, but it still hurt to hear. She always envied people who had periods. Even when her friends from home had told her that she was lucky she wouldn't have to experience them, she still felt envious. People had always tried to assure her that she didn't need to have them, that a lot of biological women didn't, but she just couldn't accept that fact. She felt like she could cry at any second if she had to stay in that room, so she just tried to change as quickly as possible, putting her the clothes she was changing out of into her bag.

"How can _you_?" A girl asked from behind the blonde, causing her to shrug and laugh

"Touché girl"

Gigi tried to forget about what just happened while she walked into the hall, after all, she didn't want to cry in front of more people on her first week. Just like when she walked into the locker room, all eyes turned to her when she entered the hall and Jan looked at her with an excited but reassuring smile. There were a few other girls standing with Jan, one being the black haired girl from their Spanish class, who Gigi had found out was called Dahlia. Gigi didn't know the other two though. One of the girls was tall and slim, somewhat like Gigi, but still a bit shorter, she had long platinum blonde hair and looked like a supermodel. She was surprised that she'd never seen this girl before. The other girl that was with them was deep skinned with a similar body type to the platinum blonde girl, but curvier, with long wavy brown hair that she kept in a high ponytail. If this was it out the cheerleaders, then Jan was definitely right about there not being enough. Gigi wasn't entirely sure what to do, so she just stood there, waiting for someone to say something, but when no one did, the air in the room felt insanely awkward.

"There _has_ to be other girls trying out, right?" Dahlia asked, her eyebrows furrowed with annoyance

"Uh, yeah," Gigi muttered "they're all just getting ready I think."

After a few moments of impatient waiting, the girls from the locker room starting pouring into the gym with some girls that weren't in the locker room as well. And before they knew it, it was time to begin the try outs. Firstly, the girls in the cheer uniforms introduced themselves to their peers, though, it was mostly directed that Gigi, as everyone else mostly knew each other. She found out that the blonde was called Nicky, she had a nice accent, most likely French Gigi thought. The brunette was called Jaida, and Gigi swore that she recognised the name, probably from a class. After each short introduction, they called on each girl that had waited to try out, Jan giving them overly excited words of encouragement before and after performing for them. When Gigi heard Jaida call her name, she felt her stomach drop with nerves. When she stood in the centre of the gym, where all the other girls had stood previously, she heard Jan shouting her usual words of encouragement despite the annoyed faces of her peers. Gigi was a good enough dancer, she liked to think, but she had never tried cheerleading. Symone and Rosy were both members of the cheer squad in their school in LA, so Gigi always went to the games they'd perform at, and sometimes, if the other girls on the team allowed her, she'd sit on the bleachers while they rehearsed, as the group would always meet up after school and Gigi needed a ride home from Symone. Gigi realised after a short course of time that she picked up on certain tricks and stunts they'd do during cheer, so she practiced them in her free time as she wanted to be able to do the things her friends could do. She managed to teach herself a short routine, it was easy enough to pick up, but the back hand spring she was able to do definitely made it more impressive. She performed it for the cheerleaders in front of her and heard Jan giving her loud whoops and cheers while clapping. Gigi was very grateful for Jan's clothes now, because she definitely wouldn't have been able to do the routine with the clothes that were now in her bag.

"Not bad, well done!" Jaida nodded, a small smile on her lip, Gigi smiled back nervously, then walked back over to wear the other girls that were trying out were standing.

When the try outs were finally over, Gigi let out a breath she didn't even realise she was keeping in and walked over to Jan, who wore her usual excited smile.

"You did so good girl!" Jan exclaimed, grabbing Gigi's wrists

"Thanks," Gigi replied nervously with a small smile "I was really nervous.."

"Everyone is at first! Don't worry about it!" Jan assured her, letting go of her wrists after a few seconds "How about we go celebrate this? We'll get changed then head into town!"

"Why are we celebrating?" Gigi asked "We don't even know if I got on yet."

"Oh girl," Jan chuckled, rolling her eyes "you're good! And even if you weren't, we're basically putting everyone on the team this year, unless they're absolutely useless!" 

"Fine, let me text my mom."

Once Gigi was done changing, she walked out of the locker room with a few other girls, not saying a word to them. She saw Jan standing outside, congratulating each girl as they passed her, and walked over to her, the clothes she borrowed folded neatly in her hands. Jan smiled at her and took them, putting them in her bag before leading Gigi out of the school and to the car park she was used to going to every day now. Gigi's eyebrows raised when she saw the rest of their friends, Rock, Jackie, Heidi and Crystal, standing by the car, and the girls shot her a smile.

"Finally!" Heidi groaned as Jan unlocked her minivan "You two took forever!"

"We were just an hour!" Jan stated, hopping into the front seat

"One hour too many!" Heidi grumbled, getting into the back of the van

Gigi and Crystal had sat beside each other once again, it was basically their own little tradition at this point, which neither of them were complaining about. The girls all talked amongst themselves in the car, having their own small conversations with each other. Gigi was left on her phone while Crystal spoke with Heidi and Rock about something that she wasn't listening to. Gigi noticed a notification from the groupchat she had texted that morning and smiled, clicking on it.

Symone: We miss you too G, you have to come visit us soon :( <3

Gigi stared at her screen for a moment as she wondered what to respond with, before her thoughts got cut off by Crystal.

"Who's that?" the ginger asked with the adorable smile she wore on a daily basis

"Oh, just my friend from LA," Gigi answered, looking up at Crystal with a returned smile "she said I have to go visit her soon."

"You should!" Crystal suggested, her smiling fading a little "It'd be nice to see her again, right?"

Gigi nodded and looked back at her phone, then at Crystal again before closing snapchat and locking her phone, so she could give her full attention to the ginger.

Just like every time they talked, Gigi enjoyed it a lot. She loved hearing Crystal speak, especially when she was passionate about something. Her voice felt like honey to a sore throat in Gigi's opinion, soothing and gentle. Gigi could listen to the girl for days, talking about anything under the sun. Before she knew it, the minivan had stopped, and the girls were parked outside the mall. Gigi had developed a loving for this mall, it was so much smaller than the ones back where she lived in LA, but it was nicer, homey-er. And of course, they instantly went to the food court, it was always Crystal's decision to go there first, but the other girls never seemed to mind it unless they desperately wanted to go somewhere else. After they all ordered, they sat at their usual booth in the corner of the room and Jan spoke with the excited smile that seemed to be permanently attached to her face.

"We finally have another cheerleader in the group!" Jan announced, she had been avoiding the conversation on the drive over so she could surprise the rest of the girls, and was successful, as they all looked at Gigi with surprised expressions

"Good job Gigi!" Jackie exclaimed, reaching across the table to put her hand on Gigi's shoulder

"Are any of us that surprised?" Heidi chuckled "I mean, look at you Gigi! You look like the type of girl that's just good at everything!"

"She is!" Jan agreed, nodding at Heidi "Not so much in Spanish, but you should see her in music!"

Gigi's cheeks flushed a bright red at the words of her friends, and somehow got even brighter when she was pulled into a congratulatory hug by Crystal. She smiled at the embrace, despite the embarrassment she was feeling and breathed through her nose, accidentally smelling the ginger girl's scent, which was very fruity and floral, though no one seemed to notice as Crystal pulled away with a smile on her face. Gigi's heart fluttered again. Why does it keep doing that?

After a few minutes, their orders were called from the counter, Jackie and Jan getting up to get them. Once they sat back down, handing everyone what they ordered, they decided to give a cheers for Gigi getting onto the cheer squad and clinked their vastly different drinks together.

Gigi had never had this much of a celebration for something so small before, but it made her feel amazing, and she radiated confidence for the rest of the night, until she got home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that not much happened in this chapter 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year everyone! :)  
> Sorry this took so long to post, I kept getting writers block and rewriting stuff

When Gigi got dropped home by Jan, she had a wide smile basically covering her whole face. The celebration she had with her friends made her feel more confident than she'd felt in a while. She dropped her bag beside the door and walked to the kitchen, her dad's car was outside, so she knocked on the door in case he was in the room, quickly calling out 'its me' and waiting for a response. Her mom called her in, so she opened the door and was surprised to see her father sitting at the table reading a newspaper, not bothering to leave the room like he usually did. Gigi's mom looked at her daughter with a relaxed smile as she sat down beside her husband at the table.

  
"How was school today sweetie?" Her mom asked

  
"It was okay," Gigi shrugged, obviously confused about the fact that her dad was there "I had try outs today, and I got on the team! So we all went to the mall to celebrate."

  
"Congratulations Gigi!" her mom exclaimed, getting up from her seat and giving her daughter a hug, not noticing the uncomfortable look on her husbands face upon hearing Gigi's name "What team was it? You never told me you had try outs for anything!"

  
"Cheer!" Gigi answered excitedly, making her mother even more excited

  
"Oh my baby's a cheerleader!" Her mother announced, turning to her husband with an ecstatic smile "Did you hear that hun? The cheer team!"

  
"I don't want to hear about it." Her father said bluntly, standing up from the table and walking away into the living room, causing Gigi and her mom to frown 

"Well, I'm glad you got on." Her mother stated proudly, placing her hand on her daughter's arm "I'm very proud."

  
Gigi's frown was quickly replaced with a smile as she embraced her mom into another hug.

"Thank you."

The next morning, Gigi was figuring out what clothes to bring. This was her first time having a sleepover with a group of girls she wasn't out to. She knew that accepting this invitation from Jan would mean that she had to over prepare in order to make sure nothing could go wrong and that no one would find out anything. The worst part of it, she'd have to tuck all day and night. She hated the thought of that, but she knew she had to do it until she got home on the Sunday. She folded up an outfit with her pajamas and threw them into an extra backpack she had in her closet along with her phone charger and small bag of makeup. She placed the bag on the floor and hopped onto her bed, sitting down beside Nancy, who was cuddled into her blanket. While she was sitting in bed on her phone, her phone buzzed like it did every morning and she smiled when she saw Crystal's name. When Gigi answered the call, she raised her brow when she saw that Crystal was walking outside. 

"Hey Geeg!" Crystal greeted, waving at her phone

"Where are you?" Gigi asked, tilting her head

"Just on a walk." Crystal answered with a slight giggle

"Well don't forget that Jan is gonna be picking you up in like 20 minutes." Gigi replied, furrowing her eyebrows

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Crystal chuckled, making Gigi even more confused

The two talked for several minutes before Crystal suddenly stopped and started looking around her, making Gigi's eyebrow jerk up again.

"Hey Geeg, can you look outside for a second?" Crystal asked after a short moment of silence

"Uh, sure," Gigi responded, slowly getting up from her bed and walking across the room towards her window and looked out to see Crystal standing at the sidewalk in front of her house, waving at her. Gigi looked down at her phone and saw the shit eating grin on Crystal's face, so she hung up the call and ran as fast as she could to the front door and stood outside, looking at the ginger with an obviously confused expression.

Crystal waved at her again, she was dressed in a way that was very typically Crystal, wearing a multicoloured shirt that was tucked into a pair of paint covered paints with chains hanging from the belt loops. Gigi noticed how much Crystal seemed to like jewellery, as she wore a lot of it. Gigi waved back from her doorstep, rolling her eyes at the ginger.

"What are you doing here?" Gigi asked

"Jan asked if she could pick me up here so she didn't have to drive all the way to my house," Crystal answered with a shrug "So I'm here!"

Gigi laughed at the response, she'd never met someone who had made her so intrigued her as much as Crystal. The ginger was so unique. She was so fun. Everything about her made Gigi smile, her face, her voice, her personality, anything she could think of. She'd never felt this way about someone after just meeting them, but she was perfectly content with the friendship she had with Crystal. The girl made it easier to feel at home in this new place. She still felt like a stranger in the town for the most part, still not knowing where everything was and not knowing that many people in school, but having friends like Crystal definitely helped her feel more at home.

"Do you wanna come in?" Gigi questioned, opening the front door ajar "You can meet Nancy."

"Will you parents mind?" Crystal asked

"They're at work." Gigi answered, shaking her head

Crystal then nodded and walked over to Gigi, giving her a quick hug and a thanks before stepping inside the house. Crystal looked around the hallway curiously, as if trying to memorise everything around her. Gigi smiled at her and walked towards the stairs, she asked Crystal if she wanted to go to her room and the ginger nodded quickly, so the two walked upstairs together. When they got to Gigi's room, Crystal gasped at how big it was, making Gigi giggle. She sat down on her bed and watched the ginger as she looked around like she did downstairs, which Gigi thought was cute, almost child-like. Once Crystal looked at Gigi's bed, she noticed Nancy and a wide smile formed on her face. She walked over to the bed and sat down beside the dog, petting her head softly. 

"She's so small!" Crystal stated, her voice going a lot higher than usual, which seemed to happen every time she was excited, making Gigi smile and nod

"She's a dachshund, so she won't get too big." Gigi replied, petting the dog as well 

"I wish I had a dog," Crystal said, looking up at Gigi "my parents don't like them though, so I have a cat instead."

"A cat?" Gigi repeated, her eyes widening and her smile brightening "I love cats!"

"You'll love mine!" Crystal chuckled "Her name's Tic-Tac."

The two sat on Gigi's bed for a while and talked about what the plans were for the sleepover at Jan's. Crystal told her about how they usually just hang out, eat junk food and watch some movies, maybe drive into the town and hang out there for a while. It sounded kind of uneventful to Gigi, as when she would stay over at Symone or Rosy's houses, they'd usually host or go to a party and stay up until the ungodly hours of the night drinking or engaging in some party drugs. She knew things were obviously going to be different in Missouri, but she definitely missed the idea of partying with her friends back at home. She started to zone out as Crystal spoke, so she didn't even realise that she had just placed her hand on top of the ginger's until the girl had stopped talking. When Gigi snapped back to reality, she looked at Crystal's smiling face, then down at their hands and pulled away when she realised what she did.

"Sorry!" Gigi blurted out, feeling her face start to flush "I zoned out, I didn't mean to do that!"

"It's fine Geeg," Crystal laughed, trying to assure her friend "don't worry about it."

Before Gigi could stammer another apology, they heard a car's horn from outside. Crystal stood up and glanced out the window, seeing that it was Jan's minivan, she smiled at Gigi and gave her a quick 'lets go' before picking up her bag that she had sat beside Gigi's and giving Nancy a final pet. Gigi got up as well and kissed the dog's head before getting her things, going downstairs and leaving the house with Crystal. Once the two had stepped outside, Gigi locked the front door and walked to the vehicle with the Gigi by her side.

"Good morning!" Jan greeted in a sing-song tone as the two got in the van "Y'all ready to start the day?"

"Where are we going?" Gigi asked, fastening her seat belt and placing her bag on her lap

"I was thinking we could just hang out in the town," Jan answered, looking at Gigi through the mirror above her head "my parents are setting up the den for us tonight, so they said we should just stay in the town for a while. We'll order food at mine." 

"Can we go get lunch?" Heidi wined from beside Rock "I'm starving!"

Gigi laughed as Heidi whistled threw her teeth, something the girl did to exaggerate her words.

"I could definitely go for some lunch." Jackie stated, nodding at Heidi

The girls eventually decided on going to the mall, as the food court was there, but they could also go shopping there too after they eat. Once Jan parked the van outside of the big building, all the girls got out quickly, desperately wanting to get their lunch. Crystal and Rock ran ahead of the girls, as they were the two with the biggest appetites out of the entire group. Gigi giggled as they ran into the mall and noticed Jan, Jackie and Heidi sharing looks and smirking at each other. Gigi furrowed her eyebrows when she looked at them and they tried to conceal the looks on their faces, though they were unsuccessful, which annoyed Gigi. 

"What?" Gigi asked, tilting her head

The girl's smirks left their faces and they looked at each other, as if to say 'do we tell her?', when they noticed how Gigi's expression was getting more annoyed, Jackie sighed and gave Gigi a small smile.

"Sorry Gee," Jackie chuckled "We have an inside joke of sorts... That involves Rock and Crystal, we just didn't mention it cause we didn't want to leave you out."

"Oh, okay.." Gigi mumbled. She didn't believe a single word coming out of Jackie's mouth, it almost looked like she didn't believe her own words either. She knew there was something else the girls were smirking over, but she knew she shouldn't say anything. She didn't want to argue with her new friends after all. She couldn't argue with them. She needed them. 

Once they'd all finished their food, they'd all gotten up to leave and Gigi excused herself so she could go to the bathroom. She felt extremely uncomfortable, the space between her legs needed some adjusting and the only way she'd able to do that was if she went to the bathroom. She didn't want anyone going with her, so she asked the girls to wait for her outside the bathroom area and they respectfully obliged. She walked down the small corridor where the bathrooms were located and stopped once she reached the women's restroom. She took a deep breath before pushing the door open, hoping that no one else was in there. She almost instantly left the room when she walked in, seeing two women making out at the sinks, one of them sitting on the counter and the other holding her waist. She completely froze when she recognised who they were. Nicky, a member of their cheer squad and Jaida, the captain of the team. The two pulled away from each other and looked at Gigi with wide eyes. The silence in the room was intense, you could cut the tension with a knife. The three stared at each other in shock, none of them knowing what to do. Nicky slowly hopped down from the sink and made her way over to Gigi, looking absolutely terrified. 

"Please," Nicky started, her accent slipping through with each letter of the word "please don't tell anyone. It'll ruin us."

Gigi could only nod, not having a single idea how to respond. Nicky sighed with a smile, but Jaida still has a suspecting look in her eyes as she stared at Gigi. It was obvious that she was suspicious of her, which was understandable, as they'd only met a few times and only spoke to each other once. Gigi tried to give her a reassuring smile, but her expression didn't change. She knew the only way she could prove that she was trustworthy was to come out as well, but she wasn't going to say everything. Not now, not ever.

"Don't worry," Gigi nervously chuckled "you can trust me, I'm a lesbian."

The two girls widened their eyes at her, obviously not expecting the statement, but after a few seconds they smiled and Jaida suddenly started looking more relaxed. The two thanked her before they left and Gigi gave them a simple nod and a 'no problem' in response. Now she could actually do what she went into the bathroom for.

Once she was done, she washed her hands and went to meet the others once again. Her stomach was at the pits of her feet, but she tried to ignore the feeling so she wouldn't worry her friends. She noticed that they were talking with Nicky and Jaida, who'd stopped to say hello after they left the bathroom. Once Gigi approached the group, Jaida and Nicky had exchanged pleasantries with her and left, giving the group a polite wave goodbye as they walked towards the exit of the mall together. Gigi and her group decided to stay in the mall for a while, buying snacks, drinks and anything they felt was needed for the sleepover.

At one point, Gigi noticed Crystal walking towards the alcohol section of the store with Rock, but didn't say anything about it. She assumed that they needed to walk that way to get to another section and turned around to where Jan and Jackie were standing, listening to them arguing over whether or not they should buy party poppers. Jan said they _needed_ them and it wouldn't be a party without them, Jackie said there was no need for them and that her parents would get mad like they did the year before. Gigi decided to stop paying attention at that point, she looked around the store, trying to find something of interest. When she saw Heidi walking between isles, she walked up to her with a smile and decided to follow her around. They walked over to a small art section that didn't even take up half of the isle and Gigi smiled as she walked over to the paints. She picked up a small packet of watercolours, thinking about the sketchbook that Crystal was constantly painting in during their art classes. She considered buying them for a moment, as a gift for Crystal, but decided against it last minute when she heard Heidi calling her voice from the end of the isle.

When they all got to Jan's house, Gigi was in awe over the size of it. Jan lived in a fairly wealthy place about five or ten minutes outside of the town, all the houses were huge, much bigger than her own. Gigi's family was definitely upper middle class, but she almost felt broke compared to the blonde. She wondered why Jan's parents chose the area they were in, or why they sent their daughter to Branson High instead of one of the fancy private schools that were all over the state. The house was covered in vines, but in a way that made it look decorative instead of lazy or not cared for, there were wide gravel steps that lead to the bright red front door with flowers of all different sorts growing around them. When they entered the house, Gigi was even more shocked, letting out a quiet 'wow' as they stepped inside. The hallway was huge, the walls were lined with a floral wallpaper, and there were multiple doors leading to different rooms of the house, in the centre of the hall stood the stairs, they were giant, mahogany and had a deep red carpet going down the middle. Gigi felt like she was in a castle, never had she been in a house like this, despite all of her friends back in LA being wealthy. All the girls took off their shoes and walked to the end of the hallway, where there was a door and a stairs that lead under the hall's floor. Jan opened the door, revealing a huge theatre room, there there was a woman sitting on one of the many chairs inside, who looked over at the blonde when the light from the hallway hit her eyes. The woman stood up with a bright smile on her face and approached the girls, giving them all hugs, even Gigi.

"How are you girls?" The woman asked, her accent slipping out with her words, Gigi couldn't tell what the accent was 

"We're fine!" Jan answered with her usual smile, she looked at Gigi, noticing her confused expression and laughed "Gigi, this is my mom!" 

"You can call me Alexis," the woman, who she now knew as Jan's mom, stated "my Jannie has told me a lot about you!"

Gigi didn't know what to say, so all she did was awkwardly smile and Alexis took this as her cue to stop talking to her. She turned to Jan and told her that she was just inside watching a movie and that the den was set up for them, but they could go up to Jan's room for a while if they wanted to. Jan nodded and skipped over to the stairs, to which the other girls followed. Gigi felt very intimidated by the house, it was a lot bigger than she could've imagined it, but she knew that with a house this big, of course Jan would be the one to host the sleepovers. The upstairs hall was big too, there was even a desk in the corner with a large computer and a big wheeled chair. Jan showed them to her room, which was obviously big as well. The walls were painted a pastel purple and the floor was covered by a fluffy cream coloured carpet. The walls were lined with posters and fairy lights, it was very cute. She had a queen sized bed in that was covered in purple pillows, with a purple blanket. The girl obviously liked her purple. She had a white desk in the corner of her room with a few things scattered on it, Gigi wasn't that bothered to look at all the little details, but she noticed a pair of pompoms and a set of headphones. In the other corner of the room sat Jan's vanity, Gigi was relieved that it was the same vanity she had, it was big and white with two units of drawers attached to the sides. There was a huge bay window at one of the walls with a couch sitting in front of it. It was easy to feel comfortable in the room Gigi realised, sitting down on the couch and placing her bag by her feet, Crystal sat beside her and leaned her head on her shoulder, making Gigi's heart flutter for the girl once more. Why did that keep happening?

"Okay guys! We have to figure out what we're gonna watch tonight!" Jan exclaimed, crossing her legs as she sat on her bed beside Jackie "We can't use the theatre room cause my mom's using it, so we're gonna have to use the TV in the den."

The girls contemplated what to watch for a while, everyone suggesting different things. Jan asked Gigi what movies she usually watched with her friends back home, which caused Gigi to think for a moment, before listing a few. Once they found out that Crystal hadn't watched one of them, Mean Girls, they decided that they were definitely going to start with that. They all sat around Jan's room for a while, which lead to Heidi and Rock switching from the chairs of Jan's desk and vanity to her soft carpeted floor, Jan hanging her head off of the side of the bed, Jackie lying against the headboard and Crystal and Gigi leaning against each other on the couch. They eventually decided to order some McDonalds on UberEats so they wouldn't have to drive into the town and relaxed in the room as they waited for their food to arrive.

Gigi felt her heart racing the entire time she was sitting with Crystal on the couch, hoping the ginger wouldn't notice. She tried to brush it off as anxiety, but genuinely didn't know why she was having this reaction. She had leaned on her friends at home before and never felt like this, so why was Crystal so different? She tried to brush off what she was feeling and just enjoy the night, which seemed to be working. She was surprised at how much she was enjoying her time at the blonde's house, considering the fact that she hadn't had a sleepover that didn't involve drugs and alcohol since she was fourteen, but the girl was definitely a good host and everyone was having a good time.

Soon enough, the topic of conversation had changed to romance.

"So Gigi," Jackie started, smiling over at the girls on the couch "you've been in Branson for a good week now, got your eye on anyone yet?"

The question caught Gigi off guard. Had she had her eye on someone? She didn't think so, but she still thought about it for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows as if that would help her find the answer quicker. When she couldn't think of anyone, she shook her head and she could've sworn Jackie had frowned for a second.

"Do you?" Gigi asked, causing Heidi to snort from the floor beside the bed, Gigi looked at her with a raised brow, not understanding the response "What?" 

"Jan and I are dating," Jackie stated, chuckling "we have been for a while now."

All Gigi could respond with was 'oh', she felt silly for not knowing sooner, but no one had told her, and the two acted the same way around each other as they did their friends. Though that was something Gigi could respect, keeping the romantic elements of a relationship private so it stays between the couple.

"If you need any gay advice, you should always go to Jackie" Rock said with a snort "don't go to Jan though, everything to her is sunshine and rainbows, which is ironically not good in this case."

"Hey!" Jan whined, sitting up so she was no longer upside down, her hair falling flat on her face and shoulders "I can give good advice!"

"Sure Jan." 

The food arrived about 40 minutes after, so the girls went down both flights of stairs in Jan's house to get to the den. There were two doors in the small, dimly lit hallway at the bottom floor and Jan had opened the door to reveal the den. It was a big room like every other room, it looked like a living room. The was a big L shaped couch beside the door, facing the large flat screen TV that sat on top of a small compartment in the corner, a fireplace, a table -that was covered in bowls of food/sweets and cups with bottles of all kinds of drinks- and two mattresses that were placed on the floor, also facing the TV. The girls quickly got themselves settled in. Rock and Heidi decided that they'd sleep on both ends of the couch and Jan and Jackie claimed one of the mattresses, meaning that Gigi and Crystal had to share the other one. Gigi had no problem sleeping beside anyone, but the thought of sleeping beside Crystal made her face feel hot for reasons she couldn't place. All the girls ended up sitting on the couch once they got changed into their pajamas and cuddled into each other with a large blanket covering the group's shoulders as they ate their McDonalds and watched the movies they'd chosen. Gigi wore a different pair of pajamas than she usually did, to avoid her friends seeing her physique properly. She wore a baby blue silk button up top with matching pajama pants. She was originally worried that she'd be wearing more than everyone else, but when she saw that Rock had a bright pink alien onesie, her anxiety faded.

They were only on their first movie, Mean Girls, on the scene where Cady goes to the Halloween party dressed as a zombie bride and walks through the house past the two girls that were kissing right before talking to Karen and Gretchen. Once they saw the girl's kissing, Crystal spoke up rather loudly.

"Oh my god!" Crystal gasped, making a few of the girls jump "Mean Girls just said lesbian rights!"

Laughter erupted from the group, and the girls eventually started talking during the movie, giving their own commentary during different scenes. Once the movie ended, the girls started asking Crystal what she thought of it. The ginger obviously enjoyed it, excitedly discussing the movie and everything that happened in it that she liked. Gigi smiled at her, loving every second of her enthusiasm.

About an hour or two later the girls were sitting on the floor around the table, talking and eating the sweets and food that were provided by Jan's parents, their movies only serving as background noise now. Crystal had stood up in the middle of the conversation they were all having and picked up her bag that she'd left beside the couch, opening it up and pulling out a bottle of vodka. Gigi tilted her head at Crystal, she didn't seem like the type to drink, but what else would she expect the girl to do, living in such a boring place? Crystal walked back to the group and placed the bottle on the table, Jan smiling excitedly in response.

"Finally!" Jan said almost too loudly, as per usual "I almost thought you didn't bring anything!"

"Now why would I do that?" Crystal asked with a chuckle, picking up one of the cups that were left on the table "It's not our annual sleepover without a morning hangover!"

All the girls had taken a cup after Crystal and Rock had opened the vodka, pouring it into each of the girl's cups. Gigi was excited to be drinking with the girls, it reminded her of her sleepovers from LA, but something about this felt more fun. Drinking with people she barely knew wasn't knew to her, but something about this just felt different. She started to realise that everything seemed different with this group, especially with Crystal.

After a lot of drinking, the girls decided to just mess around, playing Just Dance, singing some karaoke and just whatever came to mind until they were all exhausted. Everyone started settling into their assigned 'beds' and Gigi was about to get under her blanket beside Crystal before suddenly feeling her mouth get dry. She thought it was just the alcohol dehydrating her, so she asked Jan where the kitchen was so she could get water, but Jackie decided that she was also thirsty, so she got up and showed her to the kitchen. Neither of the girls were drunk, at least not as much as the other girls had been, the two had definitely sobered up more and more throughout the night, so they had no problems with getting up the small stairs and making their way to the kitchen. Once they opened the door, Gigi saw how big the kitchen was too, it looked like it had just been renovated as it was a lot more modern than the rest of the house. The entire room was covered in white marble. Gigi walked up to the island that sat in the middle of the room and sat at one of the seats, squinting as her eyes were sensitive to the white light of the room. Jackie knew where everything in the kitchen was, so Gigi just sat there and let the girl pour them both glasses of water. When Jackie handed Gigi the glass, she sat beside her at the island, one arm leaning against the marble while the other held up her glass. The two felt themselves sober up some more as they drank and the room was silent, that was until Jackie spoke up.

"So why did you lie earlier?" Jackie asked abruptly, causing Gigi to pause as she tried to register what the girl had said "When I asked if you had your eye on anyone, you said no. Why?"

"Because I don't?" Gigi answered, looking at her friend with narrow eyes and furrowed brows

"Gee, you can tell me, it's fine." Jackie smiled, placing a hand on Gigi's arm "I know you like Crystal."

"What?" Gigi coughed, almost choking on her water "Who said I like Crystal?"

"It's obvious Gigi," Jackie chuckled, "you're acting the same way around her that I did Jan."

"What do you mean?"

"The blushing? The closeness, the way you look at her?" Jackie started listing, making Gigi put down her glass and leaning against the countertop

"I never actually thought about it like that." She stated, closing her eyes to avoid seeing the light "My heart always races when I'm with her and she never leaves my mind... But I never thought that could mean I liked her. That sounds dumb when I look back at it now."

"Do you wanna date Crystal?" Jackie asked bluntly, making Gigi open her eyes and furrow her brows again. Did she? She never thought about being in a relationship with the girl, but as she started to think about it, she felt content with the idea. 

"Maybe." She shrugged, taking a sip of her water again "I don't know."

"But you like her though?"

"Yeah."

Jackie left the kitchen a few minutes later, but Gigi stayed behind for a second. She sat at the island and stared at her half empty glass, smiling to herself at the self discovery she had learned that day.

 _I like Crystal._ She thought to herself _I like her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all liked this chapter!!  
> Sorry if there's any mistakes, I'm posting this at 8:30am and I havent slept yet <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter took so long omg but it's fairly long so I think that makes up for it????? I hope so anyway :)   
> I decided to do a fairly big time jump in this chapter, so I hope it's not too confusing???

Gigi was the first to wake up out of everyone, which didn't surprise her, she was always the first one up at sleepovers. When she would stay over at her friend's homes back in LA, she was so used to getting up early that she'd either be gone home or in her friend's kitchen with breakfast by the time everyone else woke up. She didn't feel comfortable doing either of those things this time though, so she just laid on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what time it was as her phone was in her bag on the other side of the room. That was when she remembered her conversation with Jackie, the one where she had discovered that her feelings for Crystal were more than just friendly. She turned around on her side to face the ginger that was sound asleep beside her and smiled, feeling butterflies forming in her stomach as she observed the girl's sleeping state. Her curly hair covered some of her face, and it took all of the strength in Gigi's body not to reach her hand up and tuck it behind her ear. Gigi noticed that Crystal's septum piercing had shifted during the night as it was now crooked, but it still looked cool. Gigi thought Crystal looked cool anyway, but the added metal in her face with the multicoloured dice on the ends definitely added to it, she wondered if Crystal had any other piercings, but she decided not to ask as she didn't want to wake her up. Crystal was wearing the same tank top that Gigi had seen on their phone call, but this time she had a very visible neon pink bra to accompany it and Gigi could feel her face start to go hot as she admired Crystal's tan skin. She didn't want to stare at the girl so much while she slept, she found it creepy, but she couldn't help the fact that the girl was so intriguing to watch.

Gigi closed her eyes as she tried to force herself to go back to sleep, not wanting to be the only one awake anymore. After what felt like an eternity of unsuccessfully trying to sleep, she heard some shuffling around the room, so she opened her eyes and turned on her stomach, leaning her chin on her pillow to face Jan and Jackie's blanket since that's where the noise was coming from. She smiled when she saw that the two were awake and sitting up on their mattress, they smiled back at her. 

"Morning," Jan yawned, stretching her arms above her head "did you sleep well Gee?"

Gigi nodded and sat up, trying not to wake Crystal up. She moved the blanket off of her and onto Crystal, making Jackie giggle to herself.

"What's so funny?" Jan asked, rubbing her eyes

"Oh nothing," Jackie answered, shaking her head and giving Gigi a wink, she rolled her eyes in response

"My head hurts" Jan whined, leaning her head on her girlfriend's shoulder "I drank too much last night."

"Me too," Heidi muttered, sitting up from her spot on the couch "can we make some coffee?"

"I'd kill for a coffee." Rock yawned as she also sat up

"Yeah, let's go." Jan answered, slowly standing up from the mattress "You coming Gee?"

"I'll wait for Crystal to wake up," Gigi said, pointing towards the sleeping ginger with her head "We'll find you then."

Once the girls left, Gigi turned to face Crystal and just sat there with her legs crossed, not really knowing why she had decided to wait. She was relieved when she saw Crystal start to wake up, twisting and turning on the mattress before sitting up yawning.

"Sleeping beauty's finally awake." Gigi chuckled, mostly to herself, not even realising that she even said it out loud until Crystal smiled at her with a raised brow

"Sleeping beauty?"

"Shut up."

-

Ever since the sleepover at Jan's, Gigi felt like her feelings towards Crystal were growing stronger. It had been several weeks since that day and all Gigi wanted was to let Crystal know how she felt, but the problem was, she didn't know how Crystal felt about her and she wasn't willing to ruin the friendship they had built in the past month they'd known each other.

Gigi had also started talking to Jaida and Nicky a lot more ever since she saw them in the bathroom together and she realised how well they got along. Nicky even invited Gigi to the party she was throwing on Halloween night, and of course, the rest of her friends were invited too. Jan was shocked to hear that Nicky had invited everyone else, as she usually only let Jan bring Jackie before, as she heard that Heidi, Crystal and Rock could end up being a little too over the top at parties, but Gigi suggested that maybe she had a change of heart over the past school year and Jan agreed. Nicky had let Gigi know that it was going to be a costume party, so the group would have to dress up. The girls had spent days figuring out what they'd wear to the party, and eventually they all decided on multiple different costumes as they couldn't figure out a group costume that they could all agree on.

There were only two weeks left until Halloween, and the girls were sitting in the cafeteria, discussing their plans for Halloween pre and post party.

"Well, Crystal's house is closer to Nicky's than any of ours," Jackie stated, holding a small notebook and pen in her lap as she wrote down everything they were planning "so will we meet there and get ready together? Or will we meet at the party?"

"We can get ready at mine," Crystal answered, smiling as she chewed on some chips "my mom will probably let you all stay over too if we wanna just walk back after."

"Sounds perfect." Jackie nodded, scribbling some words down on her page

"I'll have to ask my mom," Gigi said, taking her phone from her bag "I'm sure I'll be able to though."

When Gigi got dropped home by Jan that day, she immediately went upstairs to her mom's craft room, where the sewing machine sat in the corner. She knew how to sew, she was good at it, but she hadn't done it since before the move. She knew exactly what she wanted to wear, even sketching it out in her copybooks in school multiple times until she had the perfect plan for it. She knew she didn't have all the time in the world to make it, so she knew she had to work on it as much as she could, with her mom's help to get it done faster.

By the time it was Halloween day, Gigi and her mom were already finished the costume. They had settled on making something fairly simple, a red tartan blazer with a matching miniskirt and a white button up top to go underneath based on the movie Heathers (which Gigi distinctly remembering that Crystal had loved) and she partnered the outfit with a croquet mallet that had a matching colour scheme, she had originally planned to bring a croquet ball as well, but after considering the fact that she'd be at a party more than likely filled with drunk teenagers she decided it was best to be safe than sorry and leave it at home. She had her costume hung up in her closet, impatiently waiting at her vanity for the time to pass so she could meet up with her friends. She had woken up earlier than planned that morning and nothing was making the day go by any faster. That was when she remembered that she hadn't talked to her friends from home in a while, so she excitedly grabbed her phone from the vanity and messaged the groupchat that she had many unopened messages from.

_You guys busy?_

It took a few minutes for anyone to answer, but it felt like an eternity to Gigi. She sighed, almost locking her phone before she saw that Symone was typing.

**Symone:** its 10am sis, what would I be busy doin

_Do you wanna call?_

Before Gigi could even put her phone back down on her vanity to wait for a response, Symone had called her. Gigi propped her phone against the vanity like she did every morning when talking to Crystal as she answered. She was so excited to see her friend's face again, even if it was through a screen, it made her start to feel bad for not talking to her for so long, but she hoped that Symone would understand, after all, they were best friends, so why wouldn't she understand? The two girls talked for what felt like forever, catching up on everything that was happening in school for them and complaining about the work they were given. Symone had mentioned school feeling different without Gigi, which made her stomach drop with guilt. She knew it wasn't her fault that she had to move, but she still felt awful for not being there for her friends in LA anymore, even if things weren't always perfect. Gigi knew that her friends from home were accepting of who she was, but they definitely struggled when she first came out, which resulted in a few arguments between them, but Gigi knew it wasn't their faults for not understanding completely and her friends never blamed her for getting angry when they had been wrong or blissfully ignorant. She loved them more for the struggles they had together, as it made them all closer and she wouldn't replace them for the world. Eventually, the topic of Halloween plans came up between her and Symone and the two had began reminiscing about the year before when they dressed up as characters from Sesame Street with a few friends. 

"So are you going to any parties today?" Gigi asked, leaning her head on her hand

"Of course I am!" Symone answered, her ginger hair bouncing as she enthusiastically moved with her words "Mik's throwing a huge party at his place tonight!"

"Seriously?" Gigi asked before groaning "Ugh, I wish I was able to go! Do you remember his Christmas party last year? When we all drank champagne in the pool?"

"Can't wait for round two!" Symone laughed "Aren't you and your country pals going to a party tonight?"

Gigi rolled her eyes at the phrase 'country pals', but smiled at the thought of partying with her new friends that night "Yeah, we are." She stated "This one girl on the cheer team, Nicky, she invited us to go. Apparently it's weird that she invited Rock, Crystal and Heidi though, cause according to Jan she doesn't ever talk to them or anything."

"Well maybe she just likes you." Symone shrugged, before raising a brow at Gigi with a smirk "Speaking of liking people, you've been there for what? Almost two months now? Have you met anyone you like yet?" 

"Uhm," Gigi hesitated, biting her lip before letting go with an overly dramatic exhale "yeah, I have. There's no point in even trying to lie, is there?" 

"Who is it?" Symone asked

"You know that girl that I have a few pics with on my instagram? The ginger one?"

"Her? The one with all the makeup?" Symone's eyebrow raised again as she asked, making Gigi feel slightly nervous. She nodded in response, which caused a smile to form on Symone's face "I mean if you like her, then she's good in my book."

Gigi sighed in relief at her friend's response, Symone was always fairly protective over Gigi, acting like a big sister to her ever since they were kids, so she was worried that Symone might not have of approved of Crystal. Not that Gigi needs Symone's approval to like or date someone, but her friend's opinion definitely did matter to her quite a lot.

"Does she like you?"

Gigi blinked, taken aback by the question.

"I don't know." She answered, shrugging her shoulders "I can't tell."

"Do you want her to like you?" Symone questioned, making Gigi almost feel like she was being interrogated "Like, do you wanna date her?"

"I don't know." Gigi stated again, furrowing her eyebrows "Her liking me back would be great, but I've never dated a girl before. Plus, she doesn't know about... you know.."

Symone hummed and nodded, biting her lip as she tried to think of something else to say. Gigi felt her hands start to sweat as she looked at her friend on the phone, she wasn't sure what to do at this point. There was a long silence, the first uncomfortable silence Gigi had with Symone in a long while. It took a while, but eventually her friend awkwardly broke the silence. 

"I gotta go Gee," Symone stated, rubbing the back of her neck "text me though, okay? We gotta talk again soon, with Rosy too."

"Yeah, sure." Gigi replied with a small smile "I'll see you, bye!"

"Bye!"

When the call ended, Gigi let out a long exhale and leaned her head on her arms. She felt bad for making her conversation with her friend awkward, but didn't know how to fix it. When she looked at the clock on her phone, she smiled when she saw that it was almost 2pm as she was meeting her friends at 3. They all decided to meet up a lot earlier than originally planned, so they could all hang out for a while before they had to get ready for the party. None of the girls had told each other what they were going to be wearing for the party, so Gigi anticipated seeing what her weird and wonderful friend Crystal would dress as. A monster? A celebrity? She had no idea what the ginger would dress as, which excited her. She felt like she could guess what the other girls would wear, but then again, the entire group was fairly unpredictable, so they could wear anything.

By the time 2.30 eventually rolled around, Crystal had asked Gigi if she wanted a ride to her house, since her mom was home that morning and it was a fairly short drive, Gigi -of course- said yes and was waiting outside the front door in a matter of minutes. Her costume was shoved into her bag along with her pajamas and other sleepover essentials, so she was just left wearing normal clothes, which were a pair of jeans and a white jumper with multiple different multicoloured drawings on it. She felt more casual than usual, which made her slightly nervous, she just hoped that Ms. Methyd wouldn't think she was sloppy or lazy. When Crystal and her mom finally arrived, they waved at Gigi through the car window, so she locked her front door and hopped in the backseat, placing her bag under her legs. She was relieved when she noticed that Crystal was dressed very casually as well, with just a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, but still keeping her own little touch of Crystal by adding fishnet gloves to the fit.

"Thank you for picking me up Ms. Methyd." Gigi said nervously, smiling at Crystal's mom through the mirror above her head

"Don't worry about it sweetie," Her mom smiled back, tilting the mirror to see Gigi better "and please, just call me Elena. I don't expect professionalism from Crystal's friends."

"Yeah, she has no standards" Crystal laughed, making Ms. Methyd roll her eyes. Crystal then turned in her seat to face Gigi, a wide smile plastered on her face like always "You ready for your first Branson party?" 

"Oh yeah, definitely!" Gigi answered, smiling just as excitedly as the ginger "I haven't gone to a party since my last day of junior year!"

"Well I promise you," Crystal started, giving Gigi a slight smirk "you're definitely going to enjoy this one."

When the car finally stopped, Gigi looked out her window at Crystal's house. It was a bit smaller than Gigi's, but it wasn't tiny. She got out of the car, taking her bag with her, and Crystal showed her inside. The house was very welcoming from the get-go, the walls in the hallway were painted a light yellow colour and were covered in family photos that made Gigi smile. She noticed a few photos of Crystal from when she was a baby, some from when she was probably between the ages of 8 - 12 and a few that seemed fairly recent. There were multiple different people in the photos that Gigi didn't know or recognise, though that didn't surprise her at all. 

"Do you wanna hang out in my room?" Crystal asked, taking off her shoes beside the door "You can leave your stuff in there."

"Yeah sure," Gigi answered, copying Crystal's actions and taking off her own shoes "the others will be here soon anyway."

Crystal only smiled as a response and started heading up the stairs, Gigi following behind her with her bag in hand. Gigi could instantly tell which room Crystal's was, as all but one of the doors in the hallway were white, one of them being painted multiple different colours. When Crystal opened the door, Gigi walked into the room curiously. It looked pretty much exactly how she had expected it to look. One of the walls had a checkered print wallpaper with a rainbow pride flag hanging from it, two of the walls were covered with paintings and drawings and the final wall of the room was covered completely of pictures and posters. She had two sets of shelf units filled with boxes on either side of the room where the painted walls were, a corner desk at the wall of pictures with a mirror, a huge TV and a playstation set up on it and a king sized bed in the corner of the room where the checkered wall was. To Gigi's surprise, the room was fairly tidy, minus the few art supplies or cans of Monster that were scattered on the floor.

"Welcome to my room!" Crystal announced, dramatically moving her hand around to show the different areas of the room "It's not as big as yours, I know, but it's cozy!"

"It's really cool," Gigi stated, walking over to the wall of pictures and chuckling once she noticed the absurd amount of One Direction pictures "One Direction? Are you twelve?"

"Hey shut up!" Crystal fake whined "They're good!"

"Whatever you say Crys." Gigi laughed, walking over to the bed where Crystal was sitting and sitting down beside her "So, what're you dressing as?" 

"I can't tell you that!" Crystal answered, crossing her arms over her chest "That defeats the whole purpose of us not telling each other until we're getting ready!"

Gigi rolled her eyes and chuckled before throwing herself down onto the bed, so her legs were hanging off the side. When she looked up, she noticed that Crystal had painted her ceiling as well, she had painted a black spiral that covered the entire ceiling and attached little stars all over it, Gigi could only assume that they glow in the dark, as they were that weird green colour that glow in the dark stars always were. The room was fairly quiet for a moment, before Gigi heard some soft music coming from beside her. It took her a second or two, but she realised it was a One Direction song. She turned her head to look at Crystal, who was sitting beside her with her legs crossed on the bed and smiled at her.

"Seriously?" Gigi snickered, making Crystal roll her eyes

"Shut up."

Crystal's door opened a few minutes later, making both girls look over at it, only to realise that Crystal's cat, Tic Tac had come in. Gigi quickly sat up once she realised the cat had entered the room, which made Crystal giggle as she picked up the cat and placed it on her bed in between her and Gigi.

"Gigi, this is Tic Tac," Crystal stated, softly stroking the cat's white and ginger fur "Tic Tac, this is Gigi."

"Hi Tic Tac," Gigi cooed, giggling at the introduction Crystal had given and scratching under the cat's chin and making it purr "I think she likes me"

"I think so too," Crystal agreed "she's being a lot friendlier than normal."

Gigi's expression grew much more excited as Tic Tac crawled into her lap, curling up on her thighs.

"Okay she definitely likes you!" Crystal laughed "She won't even do that with me!"

"You've been replaced!" Gigi snickered, sticking out her tongue at the ginger, making her dramatically gasp and grab the chest of her shirt

"I can't believe it!" Crystal whined "My baby Tic Tac has left me for another woman!"

The two girls laughed together, finding themselves a lot funnier than they probably were.

When the rest of the girls came, they all decided that they would start getting ready at six, as the party was starting at eight thirty. They all started working on their makeup as soon as they got settled into Crystal's room, some keeping their spaces neat and tidy, and some (Rock) making an absolute mess. Gigi noticed that Crystal had finished her makeup in around thirty minutes, which baffled her as she had a lot on. None of the girls had told each other what they were dressing as yet, so Gigi was very intrigued to find out what Crystal's bold pink and purple makeup would be used for. By the time they were all done their makeup it was seven fifteen, Gigi noticed that Jan had very extreme makeup on, almost looking like a Bratz doll, maybe that's what she was going for? Jackie had a mixture of whites, blacks and reds in her makeup and had drawn on a few stitches and scars, a zombie maybe? Heidi was most definitely dressed as Jigsaw from the Saw franchise, no doubt about it by the spirals painted on her cheeks and finally, Rock was wearing her usual intense makeup, but this time there was a mix of purples and she drew black tear drops falling down her face. All the girls looked at each other, silently trying to make guesses about who everyone was dressed as.

It wasn't until seven forty when they were all dressed that anyone really knew who or what anyone else as dressed as. Though Gigi definitely still struggled to figure out Rock's costume. Gigi had decided to get changed in the bathroom, so when she walked back into Crystal's room in her costume, she felt all her friends eyes become glued to her.

"Woah!" Rock gasped

"Gigi, you look-" Crystal started, looking at Gigi in awe before being cut off by Jan

"You look hot!" Jan exclaimed, causing Gigi to blush

"Thanks," Gigi muttered shyly, fiddling with the croquet mallet in her hands "so.. What are you guys meant to be?"

"Is it not obvious?" Heidi snorted, flicking the black wig she was wearing behind her shoulders "I'm Jigsaw, Jan is a Bratz doll, Jackie is the bride of Frankenstein, Crystal is Freddie Kruger and Rock is... something."

"I told y'all I'm takoyaki!" Rock huffed, crossing her arms over the black and purple body suit she was wearing

When it was finally time for the girls to leave, they all said goodbye to Elena and headed out the door to make their way to Nicky's. Crystal said the walk wasn't long, so Gigi was praying that it'd be worth the freezing cold October breeze. The group knew their way to Nicky's, so Gigi and Crystal ended up standing behind everyone else while they excitedly talked about the party.

"Hey Gee," Crystal started, looking at Gigi with a small smile as she fiddled with the overly long sleeves of her multicoloured robe "you look really good tonight."

"Thanks Crys," Gigi smiled back, hoping that the blush appearing on her face wasn't noticeable "you do too. I didn't think I could say that Freddy Kruger is pretty."

Crystal looked back down at the ground as they continued walking, so Gigi looked away as well and she could've sworn that she felt Crystal's hand brush hers. She was just hoping that there would be alcohol at the party so that she could drink away her anxieties for the night.

They knew they got to Nicky's house when they heard the loud, upbeat music blasting from the biggest house on the street. The house was covered with Halloween decorations, and there were multiple other people walking into the house in costumes. The girls all excitedly walked towards the front door and noticed it was open from the past few people who'd walked in just before them. Nicky was standing at the door, dressed as a scarecrow and smiled brightly when she saw the group then waved them inside. 

"Welcome!" Nicky greeted, kissing Jan on both cheeks as she was the first one in the door "I'm glad you came!"

"We wouldn't miss it!" Jackie replied, greeting Nicky with a quick hug

"You look great tonight Gigi, you too Crystal!" Nicky exclaimed, kissing both girls on their cheeks once she was let out of Jackie's embrace 

"You too!" Gigi and Crystal said in unison, making them both burst into giggles

"There's drinks in the kitchen," Nicky stated, placing her hand on Gigi's shoulder "Help yourself to whatever!"

Gigi nodded and walked through the crowded hallway with her friends to get to the kitchen, not really taking in her surroundings at all. It was fairly difficult to take in anything when the house was filled with people. All she could see were unnatural coloured lights and a few dark coloiured decorations. When the girls got to the kitchen, they noticed a lot of people gathered around the counter with plastic cups and chugging whatever was in them. Gigi was very excited to see how this would go, she knew people back home liked to drink a lot at parties, but she'd heard that country kids drank even more. She walked over to the counter and reached behind one of the people chugging drinks to pick up a few cups and a glass bottle of vodka and when she turned around she saw Jan already invading Nicky's fridge for anything to mix it with, eventually finding a carton of cranberry juice, which she said tasted amazing with the spirit. Gigi handed each girl a cup and poured some vodka into each of them, then poured the cranberry juice that Jan had found after it. Once she did that, the girls all hit their cups together and took their first sips, or in Rock's case, drank the whole thing in like a second. Gigi loved the burning feeling alcohol gave her in her throat, it reminded her of all the parties she'd go to back in LA, like one Symone's friend Mik threw, where they all got into the pool and made Gigi chug an entire bottle of Mik's parent's best liquor, or once at Rosy's house when she used a beer bong for the first time. It reminded her that she could still have fun and still enjoy herself around others. 

The group of girls ended up separating into smaller numbers throughout the night, Jan and Jackie were in the living room, dancing to their hearts content on the makeshift dance floor that Nicky had set up, Heidi and Rock were in the kitchen drinking the night away and Crystal and Gigi were standing outside together, where multiple people had been in order to smoke or just talk in a quieter place. The two girls were standing by a wall beside the back door, talking and giggling to each other as they were most definitely tipsy from the alcohol they were drinking.

"I'm so glad I came here tonight," Gigi said, taking a sip from her cup "I didn't think this was gonna be fun at all!"

"Well I'm glad you did come!" Crystal replied, leaning her shoulder against the wall "With the way you look tonight? I wouldn't have wanted to miss that!"

"Oh shut up Crys!" Gigi giggled, rolling her eyes and playfully tapping the ginger's arm with her mallet "You look _way_ better than me!"

"Says who?" Crystal asked, raising a brow and sipping her drink

"Says me!" Gigi scoffed, rolling her eyes and gesturing up and down Crystal's body with her croquet mallet "I mean, look at you! You're perfect!"

It was Crystal's turn to roll her eyes this time "How can you say that when you're literally you? You're so hot! Like, smokin! And you're dressed like Heather Chandler, making you even twice as hot!"

Gigi placed the handle of her mallet on Crystal's shoulder and leaned down to be eye to eye with her, she wasn't sure what she was doing, but Crystal's giggles made it somewhat obvious that the ginger didn't mind. She ended up not saying anything, but instead just giggling as she leaned her head closer to Crystal's until their noses were almost touching. The two just stood there for a moment, staring at each other and trying to hold back their drunken giggles, but got taken out of their moment by Jan's voice coming from the door beside them.

"Crystal!" Jan exclaimed, causing the two girls to jump and pull away from each other "They're playing One Direction inside!"

Crystal's eyes widened with pure glee as she grabbed Gigi's hand and dragged her into the living room where they had been blasting the band on the speakers. Gigi couldn't stop breaking into fits of laughter when Crystal and Jan went into the middle of the dance floor and screamed the lyrics to whatever song was playing at each other while dancing, Jackie seemed to find it just an entertaining as Gigi as she was laughing as well.

"Those are our girls!" Jackie laughed, shooting Gigi a wink, which caused her cheeks to turn a light shade of pink that -thankfully- wasn't noticeable under the bright red light that brightened the room.

By the time the party had ended, it was around two or three am, and the girls had all met each other outside Nicky's house so they could walk back to Crystal's together. Gigi couldn't even feel the cold from the amount that she had drank. Even though Gigi was known for drinking at parties, she was also known for being a lightweight, so she got drunk off a lot less than the other girls did, though they were all drunk as well, so she didn't feel as bad about it. They were all giggling messes by the time they arrived at the Methyd household and were relieved to see that all the lights were off, meaning Crystal's parents were asleep, so they wouldn't get caught being drunk. Once Crystal unlocked the front door with the spare key that she kept under the welcome mat, she shushed her friends, telling them to be quiet until they got to her bedroom, which is what they did, but still let out little giggles as they took wobbly steps up the stairs. When they got to Crystal's room, they all sloppily removed their makeup and started to change into their pajamas, though Gigi changed in the bathroom again. When she walked back into Crystal's room, the girls were all sitting on the floor covered in blankets as Crystal put Netflix on her TV and started scrolling through some movies.

"Where am I sleeping?" Gigi asked, placing her bag down beside Crystal's bed and sitting on the edge of it

"You can share the bed with me if you want." Crystal suggested, not even looking over at her from her spot on the floor "Or you can sleep on my wooden floor next to these losers."

"You're really calling us losers?" Rock asked with a snort, causing Crystal to playfully hit her arm

"Shut up Rock! At least people knew who I was dressed as today!"

Gigi got under the covers of Crystal's bed while the two play fought and wrapped herself up in the blanket so she could get comfortable while the girls picked out a movie to watch. They eventually settled on Truth Or Dare, which, according to Rock, was so bad it's good. Once Crystal had pressed play, she walked back over to her bed, sitting beside Gigi and taking some of the blanket from her so they would both be covered by it. Gigi felt her entire body start to heat up with Crystal being so close to her, but prayed to however many gods she could think of that Crystal couldn't tell. It wasn't until this that Gigi had realised how badly she handled horror movies, as she repeatedly flinched and covered her eyes with the blanket during certain scenes, at one point she even squealed, so Crystal grabbed her hand to calm her down. Gigi intertwined their fingers without even realising it, but when she did realise it, she didn't pull away. She knew she had to cherish moments like this with Crystal, because she didn't know if they'd ever happen again. The other girls would laugh at certain scenes that Gigi got frightened by, so Crystal just squeezed her hand and smiled at her, in a way it, Gigi thought it meant 'its okay, theres nothing to be scared of', but she had no way of knowing 100% what it meant. 

When the movie ended, the girls decided to call it a night and get some shut eye, so Crystal turned off her TV using the remote she kept beside her bed and lied down, pulling the blanket on top of her. Gigi lied down beside her, taking her half of the blanket and covering herself with it. The other girls fell asleep fairly quick, leaving only the girls on the bed awake.

"Tonight was fun." Gigi whispered with a smile, despite not knowing if Crystal could see it "We should go to parties more often."

"We really do," Crystal agreed before softly giggling to herself "only if you dress the way you did tonight though."

"Shut up Crystal." Gigi chuckled, rolling her eyes as she turned away to face the wall "Goodnight."

"Night."

Gigi expected to fall asleep as soon as she shut her eyes, which she did, but what she didn't expect was to dream about the ginger that was sleeping beside her, which she also did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i havent slept, it's 10am when I'm posting this,,, so if you see any mistakes,, no you dont <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been having an ongoing battle with my brain about whether or not I should have added certain things to this chapter or not for days now and I'm losing my mind but its fine <3  
> I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!! I'm sorry if the timeline is weird I'm just tryna keep certain things in certain chapters so I don't draw them out too much!! 
> 
> tw for transphobia/deadnaming in this chapter

After staying the night at Crystal's for Halloween, Gigi started to hate her bedroom. It was so plain. The walls were an off white colour, with a few posters hung up, the rest still kept in the boxes than she had completely forgotten about in her closet. Even though she lived in Missouri for months now, her room still didn't feel like hers, it was just a room with her things in it. She felt more at home in her friend's bedrooms than her own and even found herself staying over at Jan or Crystal's houses more often than not. Her mom definitely started to notice this, as she decided to call Gigi down to the living room one Sunday after staying at Jan's. Gigi never hesitated to spend time with her mom, so she happily sat down beside her on the black leather couch in their living room. Her happiness was suddenly replaced with anxiety when she saw the frown on her mom's face.

"Is everything okay?" Gigi asked, holding her mom's hand in her own

"Well," Her mom started, she bit her lip as she contemplated what to say next then sighed once she figured it out "you're never home anymore Gigi. I'm fine with you going out with your friends and having fun! Don't get me wrong! But I just feel like I never see you anymore.."

Gigi sighed and nodded, looking down at her and her mom's hands. She didn't know what to say. _'I don't like this house'_? no, that's rude. _'I feel more at home with my friends'_? no... What was she supposed to say? She didn't know, so she just stayed silent until her mom spoke up again.

"Is it because of your dad?" Her mom asked, squeezing Gigi's hand as her eyebrows furrowed "I know he's been distant, I know he's been a pain in the ass, but if he's the reason you're never home... I'll knock some sense into him. I promise. Just tell me if he's the reason." 

Gigi would be lying if she said her father wasn't a part of the reason she didn't want to be home most of the time, his lack of respect for her was frustrating. Though, she'd also be lying if she said he was the entire reason she didn't want to be home. Ever since she accepted the fact that she had feelings for Crystal, she wanted to see her more, she wanted to be around her as much as she could. She couldn't help it, she was just so drawn to her that she was almost following her around like a puppy. Gigi knew her mom was waiting for an answer from her, but she couldn't figure out what words to tell her, so she ended up fumbling until she said something that didn't sound like gibberish.

"Yeah, dad... Kinda." She muttered, trying to piece her thoughts into a coherent sentence "I mean, he's part of it I guess. I just want him to think of me as, well, me. Not who I used to be."

"And what's the rest of it?"

Gigi bit her lip at the question. Was she gonna tell her mom about Crystal? Was she gonna tell her mom that she didn't feel at home in the house yet? Maybe she should just suck up her anxieties about her mom's reaction and just tell her. After all, her mom was the most supportive woman on the planet, even if her brain would try to convince her that she'd just turn into a terrifying monster at the drop of a hat. When she eventually got frustrated at how fast her brain was running, she sighed and sat back on the couch, closing her eyes as her head hit the back of the seat.

"There's so much." Gigi admitted, covering her face with her hands "Like, I know this is my _house_ , but it doesn't feel like my _home_ , y'know? I feel more at home with my friends nowadays, so I just want to be with them more... I don't know, I just think if some things changed then it'd be easier to be in this house."

"Well then," Her mom started, tapping her hands against her thighs as she thought "we can sort something out, okay? I just want you to feel comfortable no matter what."

"Thanks mom." Gigi sighed, uncovering her eyes and smiling at her mom "You're the best."

"You don't need to thank me Gigi, I'm doing the bare minimum to keep my daughter happy." Her mom smiled, hugging Gigi tightly

Gigi's smile widened at her mom's words. She really appreciated the validation her mom gave her, it almost made up for the lack of validation she got from her dad. Gigi's mom seemed to always know what words to say to make Gigi feel happy, loved and seen. Gigi was beyond grateful for that.

"Hey mom," Gigi started, backing away from the hug "can I ask you something?"

"Is that even a question?" Her mom chuckled "Of course you can Gigi."

"Have you ever liked someone so much that you wanted to be with them all the time?" Gigi asked "Have you ever had someone take up your whole mind? Or make you stomach twist and turn by just being near you?"

"Of course I have Gigi," Her mom answered with a nodding head "I've had crushes before y'know? I was your age once."

"I know mom," Gigi laughed, looking down at her lap "it's just driving me crazy though, cause I don't know what to do about it."

"Does she know that you like her?" Her mom asked, tilting her head 

Gigi smiled at the fact that her mother said 'she', she honestly forgot that her mother knew she liked girls. After all, being trans was probably difficult enough for a mother to comprehend, let alone being trans _and_ gay.

"No," Gigi shook her head "at least I don't think so... I want to tell her eventually though."

For the next few days, Gigi and her mom planned out how to make Gigi feel more at home in the new house, starting with her bedroom. Gigi hated the colour of her walls, so the first thing her mom did was print out some colour charts and have her pick out what she wanted, after a while of discussing the colours, Gigi eventually settled on grey and pink and her mom made note of it, saying that she'd purchase the paint the next time she was out. They had planned for the room to be finished by Thanksgiving, which was two weeks away, meaning Gigi would be spending less time with her friends after school as she had to put a lot of work into getting her room finished, but her mom promised her that she could have all of her friends over whenever she wanted once it was done and Gigi had somehow managed to get her mom to agree to let her and her friends write or draw their own little things on the walls.

They somehow managed to get the whole room painted in just five days, meaning Gigi had to sleep on the couch for almost a whole week, though she wasn't complaining as she knew the end result of her room would be worth it. When she walked into her room after they put her furniture back into their places, she was almost overwhelmed with joy at how her room was starting to come together nicely. During the week, Gigi and her mom went around to multiple stores around the town to get some new decorations for her room. One day while the two were in the mall, walking around a small craft store, a familiar voice called Gigi's name. 

"Huh?" Gigi hummed before turning around and smiling at the sight of a familiar ginger haired girl "Crystal! Hey!"

Gigi gave Crystal a hug as she approached, she forgot how much she enjoyed hugging Crystal and she made a mental note to do it more often. When they pulled away from the hug, Gigi noticed Elena standing behind Crystal and gave her a polite smile and wave, but before she realised it, she was pulled into a hug by her.

"What are you doing here today?" Crystal asked with a bright smile

"I'm here with my mom!" Gigi answered, pointing to her mom, who was standing behind her, with her thumb "We're getting some stuff for my room!" 

"Nice to meet you two," Gigi's mom smiled as she stood in front of Elena and shook her hand "I'm Kristi Goode."

"Elena Methyd." Elena said, causing Gigi's mom, Kristi to raise a brow

"I know what you're thinking," Crystal chuckled "Crystal Methyd is an unfortunate name, but my mom didn't know a lot of English when I was born."

"Ah, makes sense." Kristi chuckled back "So what brought you two here?"

"We're just having a day out," Elena answered "but Cryssie needed some new paints, so she dragged me here."

"Well when you're done paying, would you like to go grab lunch with us?" Kristi asked "It'll be on me."

Crystal and Elena agreed without hesitation and soon enough, the four of them were sitting at a table in the food court, which was at the opposite end of the room from the usual booth Crystal and Gigi sat at with their group of friends. Gigi had decided to to only get a coffee as she wasn't hungry when they entered, but once she saw Crystal's cheesecake, her stomach started to grumble.

"You want some?" Crystal asked, picking up some of the cake with her fork and holding it towards Gigi

"Please" Gigi chuckled, gently taking the fork from Crystal, her stomach twisted and turned when her fingers accidentally brushed off Crystal's but she tried to push away that feeling by taking a bite of the cake. Crystal smiled at her when she gave back the fork and continued to eat. Gigi didn't realise she was staring until she heard her mom saying her and Crystal's names.

"Why don't you two come back to the house when you're done and you can put up Gigi's new decorations?" Kristi asked with a small smile

"Sure!" Crystal replied, looking at Kristi then at Gigi with a wide smile "Sounds fun!"

When they got back to the house, Gigi and Crystal quickly went upstairs with the small bags of decorations for Gigi's room. Crystal gasped when she walked in. The walls were covered with geometric shapes of pink and grey with white outlines and certain pieces of furniture were rearranged and put into different places. Gigi put the bag she was holding on her bed and started taking out the contents that were in it. She had bought a few fairy lights, picture frames, wall stickers, little knickknacks and basically anything she found that she thought would look nice in her room. Crystal poured out the contents of the smaller bag that she was holding onto Gigi's bed, which were a few paints, pain makers and paint brushes. Gigi explained that her mom said she was allowed to write on her walls now, which made Crystal's smile widen as she picked up a packet of the markers and took out a small black one so she could write something.

Gigi smiled as Crystal looked around the room with furrowed brows, trying to find the perfect space to write something. Crystal eventually decided to sit on the floor and write something above the baseboard beside Gigi's bedroom door. Gigi raised a brow as she watched Crystal write, she was curious as to what the ginger could be writing since she had a giddy smile on her face, but decided not to ask until she was finished, which was only a few seconds after she started.

"Done!" Crystal announced, standing up and handing Gigi the marker "You should write something now! It's fun!"

Gigi nodded and smiled at Crystal as she took the marker. When she looked down at the section of the wall where Crystal wrote, she felt her heart do flips in her chest.

'C + G' was all that was written, but it was enough to make Gigi's stomach tighten into knots in her stomach. She knew Crystal didn't feel the same way she did, but there were a few times where she felt as if the two were on the same page. The next thing she did was unexpected to the both of them. She sat down on the floor where Crystal just was and drew a heart around the initials Crystal had written.

"Cute." Was all Crystal said in response

During the Thanksgiving break, Gigi was stuck at home, since she promised her mom that she'd engage in family time with her and her dad. In the first week of the break, Gigi avoided her dad like the plague, not talking to him unless her mother made her. She had gotten away with avoiding him until Thanksgiving day, when she had to have dinner at the table with him and her mom. The three of them were sat at the table, not saying a word. The air was tense and Gigi felt like her lungs were shrinking. She didn't want to say anything, but she knew she would have to at some point. Her mom said things would get better, but she knew for that to happen she'd have to put some work in as well. 

"So mom, dad," Gigi started, causing her mom to raise a brow "you grateful for anything this year?"

"No." Her dad deadpanned, receiving a sigh from her mom

"Well, I am," Her mom said, forcing a smile at her husband "I'm very grateful for my promotion and I'm even more grateful for having such an amazing husband and daughter."

Gigi's dad started to look visibly uncomfortable when her mom referred to her as their 'daughter', but Gigi tried to ignore it, she just wanted to avoid an argument as much as humanly possible.

"That's really nice mom," Gigi replied with a small, genuine smile "I'm grateful for your promotion too. I'm really glad we moved here, it's great to be somewhere where I can really be me. Not anyone else."

"Aw Gigi, that's-

"Can you not call him that for _one_ day Kristi?" Gigi's dad asked, interrupting her mom "Can't we just have a nice dinner?"

"She's calling me by _my_ name." Gigi stated, resulting in her dad rolling his eyes "It's not that hard to do."

"It's not your name!" Her dad hissed, slamming his hand on the table "Can you stop acting like this for once?! Can't you just be my son again?!"

"I was never your son!" Gigi snapped, she could feel a lump start to form in her throat, but she refused to let her father see her cry "And I never will be!" 

"Stop being stupid Steven!" Her dad shouted, causing Gigi to bite her lip and quickly stand up from her chair

"It's Gigi! My name is Gigi!" Gigi shouted back, feeling tears in her eyes "I'm not Steven anymore! Stop calling me that!"

"That will always be your name to me." Her father said lowly, earning a dirty look from her mom

"I hate you." Gigi stated bluntly as tears started to run down her cheeks "You want a son _so_ badly that you're willing to lose a daughter? Then fine, I don't want a dad who doesn't want me."

And with that, Gigi quickly left the room, her bedroom door slamming a minute later, leaving her parents stunned at the table.

"I'm very disappointed in you." Her mom sighed, getting up from her seat and leaving the kitchen

Gigi's dad sat at the table alone, looking absolutely shocked. Gigi's words ran around his mind, but he didn't know what to do with them. He felt genuinely guilty for his words for the first time in a while.

Gigi continued to avoid her dad after that and her mom didn't blame her. She had decided not to have any friends over in fear of her dad outing her, it was upsetting, especially since she was really excited to invite everyone over to check out her new room, but she felt like it was a necessary precaution to take. She wasn't aware of how guilty her dad was feeling about the situation, but if she did she wouldn't care. She began to resent her dad more and more after that day, she wouldn't even look in his direction when he was in the room, or she'd completely ignore him if he spoke to her. She was feeling a lot of emotions in regards to the situation with her dad, but there was no one she could talk about it to. She couldn't tell her new group of friends for obvious reasons, but she couldn't tell her older/not-so-new friends as she hadn't spoken to them in a while and didn't want to bother them with her venting out of nowhere. She couldn't talk to her mom either, well, she could, but just like with her friends from LA, she didn't want to. She hated the feeling of dealing with these problems on her own, she preferred to talk to people and let her feelings out, but she couldn't.

Even though Gigi wanted nothing more than to just be stealth for the rest of her life, she knew she had to come out to her new friends eventually, especially Crystal. After all, if she wanted to possibly date her, she couldn't keep a secret this big from her. She tried doing that once, dating someone without them knowing of her situation, it didn't end well and Gigi was not willing to go through that again. So she needed a plan. When would she tell them? Where would she tell them? How would she tell them? This wasn't her first time coming out of course, so she had some experience in planning the conversation, but this time felt more stressful. She was sure her friends would be supportive, that they'd be okay with it, but there was still a lot of room in her mind left for anxiety and doubt.

She eventually decided that she'd tell them in the next month, before New Years. It had to be before New Years because in the off chance that they weren't supportive of her, she didn't want to start the new year with them as friends if she couldn't finish it with them. She had written down everything she wanted to say to them, when she wanted to say it and where she wanted to say it. After planning everything she felt as if she could relax again. Her birthday was coming up soon enough, and she wanted to be able to enjoy that without stressing over her plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than usual!! I'm back to doing school online so it's difficult to find time to write but I'm trying my best!! 
> 
> Also I made an instagram for drag queen art (Cl0wnB0y.jpegg) so follow me there if you want!! I mainly draw AU stuff that I think would be cute so if you guys wanna see that then check it out!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I really write this entire chapter in just a day and a half? Somehow, yes. 
> 
> I'm so happy with this chapter!!!! I really hope you like it too!!
> 
> It's 1am while I'm posting this, so I'm gonna proof read it instead of doing my classwork tomorrow <3

December rolled around fairly quick, so Gigi's birthday (December 2nd) came around quicker than she had even realised. On the day of her birthday, she woke up to her phone loudly buzzing on her bedside table. She groaned as she turned over to pick up the phone and see who was calling her, but she smiled when she realised it was Crystal, even if she was confused about why the girl had called her a lot earlier than usual.

"Hello?" Gigi muttered as she answered the phone, her voice sounding low and husky, making her clear her throat

"Happy birthday Geeg!" Crystal greeted, her voice also sounding fairly raspy, making Gigi wonder if she had just woken up and decided to call her as soon as possible

"Thanks Crys!" Gigi replied, clearing her throat once again "I'm finally an adult! I'm old like you!" 

"Welcome to adulthood baby!" Crystal chuckled "Your free trial of life is over, but you can actually do cool shit now!"

"Like _you've_ done cool shit?" Gigi snorted

"Hey! I have piercings!" Crystal protested, making Gigi giggle "By the way, do you wanna stay at my place tonight? If you're not busy that is." 

"Yeah, sure!" Gigi answered almost too quickly "I'll have to ask my mom but I'm sure she'll let me."

The rest of the day was going fairly well, her mom made her a big breakfast and gave her a few gifts, which were some posters, fabrics and a cute yellow phone case, (it wasn't much but Gigi appreciated the gifts she got since she knew she'd be getting more in just a few weeks when Christmas rolled around) her friends had all wished her a happy birthday and it was a Friday, so she was able to just go straight to Crystal's after cheer practice and enjoy her weekend.

Her friends had decided to spend lunch in the art room today, as Ms. Couleé had given them permission to, though she had to be in the room with them. Gigi didn't mind this though, as Ms. Couleé had been her favourite teacher in the school and she was fine being in her presence. When the group of girls sat down at a table, they all took little wrapped gifts out of their bags and placed them in front of Gigi, leaving her looking very visibly confused.

"What's that face for?" Jackie asked, raising a brow "Did you _really_ think we weren't gonna get you anything?" 

"I've only known you guys a few months!" Gigi answered, raising her hands defensively "You didn't need to get me anything!"

"Gorg, we're obviously gonna get you birthday presents!" Jan stated, leaning back in her seat "Now just open them before I do it for you!"

Gigi rolled her eyes with a breathy chuckle before starting to open the gifts that were left in front of her. The first one she opened was from Rock, it was a drawing of the group of girls as superheros in a cute anime-esque style with the word 'Gay-vengers' written above them, Gigi honestly loved it, she thought it was absolutely adorable yet hilarious. The next one was from Heidi, a few small makeup palettes and some brushes, it made Gigi remember how a few weeks prior she was telling the girls that she was in need of new makeup supplies and she was grateful that Heidi had remembered. The next gift was labelled from both Jackie and Jan, making Crystal compare them to a married couple, when Gigi opened it, she smiled upon seeing the first item, which was a pair of white crochet pants with multicoloured circles all over it, but her smile dropped once she saw the second item, a crochet bra that matched the pants. She forced back on the smile as she thanked Jan and Jackie, but she could feel her heart rise to her throat. She knew it wasn't her friend's fault that she felt this way, well, it kind of was, but she knew they didn't intend for her to feel like this. She tried to push away the dysphoria she was feeling, just so she could enjoy some time with her friends on her birthday, but the more she tried to ignore it, the worse it started to feel. She felt very aware of her chest in that moment and how flat it was.

"These are all really cool!" She forced out, her voice squeaking ever so slightly and making her cringe "Thanks guys!"

"Hey! Don't forget about my gift!" Crystal said as she held her gift in front of Gigi

"Oh sorry!" Gigi responded, hoping that her cheeks weren't as red as they felt

The small box Crystal handed her was a bit heavy, which made her raise a brow at the ginger who only smiled and encouraged her to open it with gestures. When Gigi opened it, the negative feelings that were filling her body only moments prior were replaced by pure joy. Crystal had gotten her a few things, there was a small plushie of Kermit The Frog (since Crystal absolutely loved it when Gigi had shown her pics of her and her friends from LA dressed as the Sesame Street cast), some homemade jewellery, a packet of neon coloured markers and a framed picture of the group, which Gigi recognised as the first out of many selfies the girls had taken in the food court.

"These are so cute!" Gigi whined, pulling the ginger into a tight hug "Thank you so much!"

"Damn, guess we know who her favourite is!" Rock snorted, making Gigi roll her eyes

"Oh shut up Rock," Gigi chuckled, leaning over the table and giving her friend a quick shoulder hug "I love all the gifts!"

"Well you're probably _in love_ with Crystal after seeing what she got you!" Heidi laughed, making Ms. Couleé -who was sitting on the other side of the room- look over with a raised brow

"Look what you did Heidi, Ms. Couleé's gonna hate crime them now!" Rock joked, which made Ms. Couleé roll her eyes with a chuckle before approaching the girls, making Gigi feel suddenly very nervous

"Don't worry Gee, Ms. Couleé doesn't actually care." Crystal assured "She's married to Ms. Velour!" 

"Wait, really?" Gigi asked, looking at the teacher

"Not yet," Ms. Couleé answered, shaking her head "we're engaged though!"

"So this school isn't _that_ bad with LGBT stuff then?" Gigi asked

"I don't think so," Ms. Couleé shrugged "there's been problems in the past, where some students have been bullied, but that always gets sorted out."

"And by 'some students' she means Crystal" Jan laughed, making the ginger playfully hit her arm "Seriously though, Ms. Couleé and Ms. Velour are your number one supporters if you're gay!" 

"I know first hand what being demonised for being queer feels like," Ms. Couleé stated, giving Gigi a sad smile "Ms. Velour the same, so we both want to make this school a better place for gay and trans kids."

Trans kids. Those two words repeated themselves over and over in Gigi's head for the rest of lunch, an overwhelming feeling of relief rushing over every inch of her body every time she thought of them. She was more than glad to know that she had an adult other than her mom who'd be by her side now. It was always one thing being validated by your peers, but being validated by adults was something completely different, at least to Gigi anyway.

The school day had ended much quicker than Gigi had even realised it, so now all she needed to do was go to cheer practice then to Crystal's house for the night. She had her last class of the day with Crystal and Rock, so they walked with her to the gym, after telling Ms. Couleé to enjoy her weekend of course. The two girls walked Gigi to the locker rooms, and Rock gave her a quick hug before scurrying off to catch the bus she was forced to take when Jan wasn't driving her home.

"So are you gonna stay here until practice is over or?" Gigi asked, standing outside the locker room with her hand on the door

"I think I'm gonna head home and then come back to pick you up." Crystal answered with a small smile "We can go get food on the way back to mine or I'll pick something up on my way back here. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect." Gigi replied with a toothy grin "I'll see you in an hour, bye Crys."

"Bye Geeg!"

Like usual, Gigi got changed at the very back of the locker rooms where no one could see her. She wasn't feeling too uncomfortable about the way she looked today as she was just wearing a black sweater with a brown jacket and a black skirt with black tights. She hated the thought of only wearing black, so she always added a brighter colour somewhere in her outfit when she found herself mostly in that dark colour. She liked the look of others in full black, but she didn't particularly enjoy it on her, considering the fact that she had black hair and didn't want to give off an emo vibe. Again, she liked that look on others, just not herself. She was always the first out of the girls to get changed into her cheer uniform as she had mastered the act of getting changed as quickly as possible, so when she had her uniform on she tied her hair into a high ponytail and walked over to wear Jan was putting her clothes from the day in her gym bag.

"Sucks you gotta practice on your birthday," Jan chuckled "I'm surprised you even showed up. I never come to practice on mine."

"Yeah, we know." Nicky laughed from a few feet away, also putting her clothes in her bag "Happy birthday though Gigi! Do you have plans?"

"Thanks Nicks!" Gigi smiled "And yeah, I'm staying at Crystal's tonight!"

"You and Crystal are..." Nicky paused, furrowing her eyebrows as she was trying to find the right word to say "Close."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jan asked, giving Nicky an annoyed glance

"Nothing." Nicky shrugged "Just an observation."

After saying that, Nicky gave them both a polite smile and left the room to go to the gym and Jan gave Gigi an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry about that," Jan whispered so none of the other girls could hear "she's not... the nicest of people to Crystal."

"What do you mean?" Gigi asked, also whispering

"I know I really shouldn't be telling you this," Jan sighed "but remember when I made a joke about Crystal being bullied earlier? Well, it was Nicky that did that."

"What?" Gigi responded "Why?"

"Cause Crystal's gay." Jan answered, glancing around the room to make sure none of the girls were able to hear her "She's pretty homophobic, which is kinda ironic for a French chick."

Things started to make a lot of sense for Gigi now, even if she was still a bit confused. Throughout the year so far, Gigi had gathered that most of the school seemed to be pretty accepting of LGBT people, so she had wondered about the comment Nicky made in the mall bathroom for a while, 'this will ruin us'. Gigi was certain that no one would've cared other than a few of the football team members that were so obviously in love with her, so why was Nicky certain that it'd ruin her? Simple, because she was ashamed, she was ashamed of being gay so she took it out on someone who was proud. Once Gigi had pieced together all of the information she had, she started to feel bad for Nicky. She wanted to let her know that she had a friend to support her and be with her, but she wasn't entirely sure how to get that across to the girl since they rarely spoke and weren't in any classes together.

She had almost completely forgotten about her thoughts from the locker room once practice was over, that was until Nicky approached her on her way out of the school building.

"Hey," Nicky greeted, giving Gigi a small, nervous smile "I'm sorry about what I said in the locker room."

"It's okay," Gigi shrugged, it was okay, she really had no problems with what Nicky said "seriously, I know what you meant.. I think?" 

"I didn't mean anything by it!" Nicky stated before sighing "It was just a genuine observation! But because of how I treated Crystal in the past, Jan thought I meant something else."

"Why did you do that by the way?" Gigi asked, not even looking at Nicky as they walked "Like, I get it that it was probably because she was happy and you weren't or whatever, but was there anything else?"

"Like you said, she was happy, I wasn't." Nicky answered, looking down at the floor "Back in France where I grew up, we lived in a fairly religious place and they made it very clear that being gay was wrong and something not to be proud of. So coming here and seeing someone like Crystal be out and proud made me so confused and angry that I couldn't help but take it out on her. So after months of saying things to and about her, Ms. Velour got involved and told me that I should be ashamed at how I was treating Crystal and making her feel. It was difficult for me to understand how an adult of all people could defend her, so I ended up crying and explaining myself to Ms. Velour. I told her that I was just angry that Crystal had what I didn't and she was very understanding, she helped me out a lot, but I'm still struggling with this. You, Jaida and Ms. Velour are the only people that know."

"How did Jaida find out?" Gigi asked, nodding as she took it all of the information Nicky had given her

"Well, she actually came out to me first." Nicky stated with a breathy chuckle "She was crying like a baby, thinking I was going to hate her, but then I told her that I could never hate her and that I'm gay too. She was so shocked, but she understood when I explained everything to her. That was only about a year ago now I think... Maybe two? I don't know, we started going out a while after that, which was almost a year ago."

"Are you ever gonna apologise to Crystal?" Gigi asked, finally looking at the blonde as the got to the doors of the school, Gigi didn't even realise that she had walked the long way until they had gotten there "I think she deserves to hear it from you."

"I want to," Nicky answered "but I can't yet."

"I get that." Gigi smiled "Just, dm me on instagram if you need to talk about anything, okay?"

"Okay, thanks." Nicky smiled back

"No problem."

When Gigi stepped outside, she noticed Crystal standing beside Elena's car, which she seemed to take every now and then when Elena wasn't using it. She waved at the ginger and ran up to her, giving her a quick hug before getting into the passenger side of the car and putting her seatbelt on. Almost as if on cue, she started to smell food in the car as soon as she heard the noise of her seatbelt buckle and looked to the back seats where the scent was coming from to see two McDonald's bags.

"I know, I'm the coolest." Crystal snickered as she started up the car "I gotta treat the birthday girl!"

"You have done _too much_ Crys!" Gigi laughed, playfully hitting Crystal's arm "Seriously! A billion gifts _and_ McDonalds? What more could a girl ask for? That settles it, we're married now!"

"Only if you keep my last name" Crystal joked, driving out of the school premises

"You wish!" Gigi snorted

The two got to Crystal's house fairly quickly and were in Crystal's room eating their food in no time. They decided to spend the day in Crystal's room watching movies, shows, videos, anything of the sort and just have fun while enjoying each others company. Gigi couldn't wish for anything else. Every year on her birthday back in LA, she'd go off to a party with Symone and Rosy and drink until she could barely walk, maybe even make out with some strangers, but tonight she felt so content with having a more domestic celebration. Eating junk food with your best friend in your pajamas was definitely more ideal to her that a heavy drinking binge, even if those were fun too.

Her and Crystal were on the girl's bed, cuddling into each other while wrapped in blankets and watching a few of the movies they had watched at Jan's at their first sleepover. They were sharing a big bowl of popcorn that sat in Crystal's lap, well, Gigi would call it sharing, Crystal would call it "Gigi eating all of the popcorn while I get the kernels", Gigi was resting her head on Crystal's shoulder and had her legs tangled around hers. She had felt very comfortable being physically affectionate with Crystal, she was a fairly affectionate person anyway, but she wasn't this affectionate with people unless she trusted them enough. She was surprised at how much she trusted Crystal at first, since she still wasn't out to her, but Crystal was just impossible not to trust.

Gigi felt Crystal shift a little underneath her, so she glanced at her from the corner of her eye to see that she was blushing a deep red, which confused her for a second until she looked down at the popcorn bowl and realised that the two of them where holding hands. _When did that even happen?_ Gigi thought, she kept glancing between her hands and Crystal, to see if she should move her hand away, but Crystal did it first. Gigi's hand felt like it was on fire when Crystal let go, so she moved it onto her own lap and looked over at the ginger who was now nervously looking down at the bed. Gigi sat up and turned her body to face Crystal. 

"Are you okay?" Gigi asked

"Yeah, I just.." Crystal mumbled before clearing her throat "I have another gift for you. I was gonna wait and give it to you on Christmas, but I kinda wanna give it to you now."

"Okay?" Gigi responded, raising a brow as she watched Crystal hop off of the bed and walk towards her set of drawers, pulling out a small wrapped gift and handing it to Gigi

Gigi looked down at the gift and smiled as she carefully tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a small, cream coloured sketchbook.

"Thanks Crys," Gigi said with a wide smile, trying to figure out why Crystal looked so nervous "how are you so good at gift giving?"

"Magic." Crystal chuckled before sitting back down beside Gigi and crossing her legs "The paper in that is textured."

Gigi's smile widened even more as she looked down and the sketchbook and opened it, flicking through the pages and feeling them, realising that it was multipurpose paper, when she finally flipped through to the final page of the sketchbook, she realised there was writing on it, a lot of it, almost like a letter. She looked at Crystal with a confused expression, wondering if she was going to tell her what it was before she started reading.

"Just read it," Crystal said with a small smile "please."

Gigi's smile faded when she saw how Crystal was starting to look more nervous by the second, so she decided to stop looking at her in hopes of calming her down and read the letter instead.

To Gigi

Merry Christmas! I think! Is it Christmas when you're reading this? Probably, i dont know,  im indecisive and dont know when to give you this tbh 

Ok Ok, seriously, this is a serious note (not bad serious tho! just serious!)

So, we havent known each other that long, you know that, I know that. It's a fact. 

We havent known each other that long, but I like to think of you as my best friend!! You make me feel the best way a best friend should.

But you also make me feel more? I dont know how to explain this in words, so idk why I thought a letter would be the best way in telling you this,

but I really like you. I like you a lot. so much. More than Ive liked anyone else in a while. 

I really hope you know what I'm getting at, but if you don't ill just say it straight up.

I have feelings for you.

I really hope you don't hate me, cause youre so cool and I really like being your friend

but I can understand if you do

\- Crystal

With every word, Gigi felt her heart do flips in her chest. _'Holy fuck'_ She thought _'This is happening, this is really happening'_ she wanted to throw the sketchbook onto the floor and cover Crystal in kisses all over her body, but she couldn't, she knew she couldn't. She hadn't come out to her yet. Wait, she hadn't come out to her yet. Crystal, the girl she'd been gushing over for months, was confessing her feelings for her and she wasn't out to her. She wanted to tell Crystal how she felt the same, she wanted Crystal to ask her out.. She wanted Crystal to want her, but she wasn't out. She couldn't date Crystal without her knowing the truth. Nothing was going to plan, the plan she made was crumbling apart right in front of her. What the fuck was she supposed to do? She felt so overwhelmed that only one word could come out of her mouth.

"Fuck." Gigi breathed, clutching onto the sketchbook as panic started to fill her body

"I'm sorry Geeg," Crystal gulped, giving a Gigi a look of guilt "I'm sorry if I just ruined your birthday by telling you this."

"Crystal" Gigi whispered, trying to gather her thoughts

"It was inappropriate and I know I shouldn't have done that, especially now" Crystal rambled, not hearing Gigi's whispers

"Crystal" Gigi repeated, tightening her grip on the sketchbook

"I'm really sorry Gee, if you want to leave I can drive you home or you can call your mom or-

"I'm trans Crystal." Gigi blurted out, her eyes widening and her heart dropping to the pits of her stomach once she realised what she had just said

Crystal was frozen in front of her, eyes just as wide "Wh... What?" 

"I'm trans." Gigi repeated, biting her lip

"Your trans?" Crystal asked, though Gigi knew it was more than likely rhetorical

"Yeah." Gigi nodded, avoiding eye contact

"So," Crystal started, trying to process the sudden information "you're a guy?"

"What?" Gigi responded, starting to feel genuinely sick "Are you fucking serious Crystal?"

"You said you're trans!" Crystal protested "So you identify as a guy then, right?"

Gigi paused at the question before starting to laugh when she realised that Crystal had asked if she was a trans guy. Crystal was starting to look more and more confused.

"Crystal," Gigi started once her laughing started to calm "I'm a girl. A trans girl."

"Ohhhh," Crystal responded, finally understanding "okay, that makes more sense!"

"So you're.. not mad?" Gigi asked, gaining a tilted head from Crystal

"Of course I'm not mad!" Crystal chuckled "I'm relieved!"

"Relieved?" Gigi echoed "That I'm trans?" 

"When you said you were trans, I thought you meant a trans guy!" Crystal stated "I thought that meant I wasn't gay anymore! I almost had an identity crisis!"

"So you still like me even though you know?" Gigi asked, looking down at the sketchbook again

"Geeg, nothing will stop me from liking you." Crystal answered, placing her hand on top of Gigi's "You're still Gigi, now I just know a bit more about you."

"You're gonna make me cry!" Gigi dramatically whined, dropping the sketchbook onto the floor and pulling Crystal into a tight hug "You have no idea how scared I was of telling you! I had a whole plan to tell you and the girls before New Years, like, I have every single thing thought out! But since you ruined it, you better help me make a new plan!"

"Of course I will," Crystal giggled, hugging the girl back tightly "so you don't hate me for... my thing?"

"Seriously Crystal?" Gigi asked, pulling away from the hug and raising a brow at the ginger "I think you're the only one out of the group who didn't know I've liked you this whole time!"

Crystal scooted backwards on the bed until she was leaning against the wall and gave Gigi a shocked expression. One thing all of their friends had told Gigi was that Crystal was an 'oblivious lesbian' and has never noticed anyone having feelings for her. Ever. Gigi thought they were just joking and being dramatic at first, but now she knew they were right. Gigi thought that she had been obviously dropping hints to Crystal over the past few months with all of the affection she'd been giving her, but Crystal was living up to her title the entire time and being completely oblivious.

"So what does this mean?" Crystal questioned, leaning her head back against the pride flag that hung from her wall "Do we date?"

"Do you want to?"

"Of course I do!" Crystal answered, looking up at the painted ceiling above her "Do you?"

"No." Gigi deadpanned, making Crystal dart her eyes towards her

"Really?"

"Crys, I'm just kidding!" Gigi giggled, gaining a fake punch from Crystal "Of course I want to!"

"So is that it then?" Crystal asked, a smile starting to form from her lips "Are we dating?"

"I think so."

For the rest of the night, the girls continued spending their night they way they were earlier, cuddling, watching movies and eating junk food. This time though, they held hands without feeling flustered.

Gigi felt incredibly grateful, she had come out, got a girlfriend, ate McDonalds and got spoiled with gifts all in one day. And even though she knew she still had to come out to other people soon enough, she wasn't scared anymore. She had Crystal by her side, she _knew_ she had Crystal by her side. That was all she needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOOO Gigi finally did it!!!! Be happy for her or perish!!!! 
> 
> Just a reminder that I made an instagram account for my drag race art!! (Cl0wnB0y.jpegg)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!!! I'm sorry it took me so long to write this, I'm mentally at my worst atm as my country is in it's third lockdown and I'm back doing school online so it's been very difficult for me to write without getting writers block <3 
> 
> Hopefully you guys enjoy this even if it's not my best work!! And tysm for the nice comments you've all been leaving on these chapters!! They mean the world to me!!

Things had started to get a lot better in Gigi's life since the events of her birthday. She felt like her energy had completely changed, she was happier and more confident and that definitely started to rub off on the people around her. She felt like people were happier than usual to speak to her. It was nice, but kind of weird. Regardless, she still went about her day with her head up high and radiated the confidence she didn't even realise she had been concealing. She was always a fairly confident girl, but her confidence had slowly been decreasing throughout the year without her realisng it. Her confidence was always highest when she was with her friends at home, but since she wasn't going to be seeing them any time soon, she subconsciously made the decision to start finding new ways to build herself up. Back in LA, she was out and proud, which made her confident, and even though being stealth definitely helped her a lot, it was difficult to not get anxious over the thought of someone finding out that she was trans and saying awful things to her.

  
Gigi realised how amazing Crystal could be as a girlfriend during the next few weeks, she'd take Gigi on little dates, give her affectionate pet names, send her some dumb 'wholesome memes' and talk to Gigi in ways that made her feel amazing and loved, she even respected Gigi not wanting to tell her dad about their relationship and didn't even ask why. She was the most respectful partner Gigi had and they hadn't even been dating that long.

  
The girls had decided to stay over at Crystal's on December 23rd, so they could have an early Christmas celebration, then spend the night at Jan's on New Years Eve to celebrate the new year together. It excited Gigi how she could almost always have something to plan for with them, but there was never too many plans, so all the girls could have their time apart from each other. Gigi loved to spend as much time with the girls as possible, especially now that her mom wasn't pressuring her to stay home as much after the Thanksgiving incident, so she always accepted any invites to plans that the girls made, these sleepovers obviously being examples of that.

  
Crystal had agreed to help Gigi come out to their group of friends at Crystal's house, so Gigi had a mixture of excitement and anxiety mixing around in her stomach while the days went by. Crystal assured her that everything would be fine, that the girls were supportive of everyone and the worst they'd do was ask a question that might accidentally been insensitive, which Gigi hoped it was true. Coming out was always such a strange experience for Gigi, she always had support back in LA, not a lot of people in school said anything -to her face- about her being trans and the people that did only said kind words, but this wasn't LA, this was a small town in Missouri that she didn't know enough people in to know if the town was progressive or not. She knew that there were supportive adults in her life and that there were some supportive people her age, but there were probably more people that would be against her and not hesitate to let her know. The worst comments she ever got back in LA were online by people she didn't even know, but somehow knew her. She got called a few names and a slur or two, but Rosy and Symone never hesitated to defend her by any means necessary, so she never felt too awful about being out and proud there. She knew that Crystal was out and proud, but she didn't know what most people's reactions to that were, all she knew was that her parents and friends were supportive, but she got bullied by Nicky, who also turned out to be gay. She made several mental notes to ask Jackie and Jan how their coming out experiences went, but they all seemed to have gotten tossed in the shredder.

  
By the time December 23rd rolled around, Gigi had gotten up a lot earlier than she had intended to, so she decided to throw on a cropped blue shirt and a pair of white pants with black and red stripes on them and a pair of black doc martens and decided to take Nancy on a quick walk. She didn't feel the need to wear too much makeup that morning, so she just quickly applied some pink tinted lip gloss and did her eyeliner before leaving a sticky note on the kitchen counter to say where she'd be going and leaving. She enjoyed walks, but she preferred them with other people. She reminisced in the memories of her and Symone going on walks during the ungodly hours of the night just to talk to someone and how refreshing the warm Californian breeze felt. Even though she was starting to consider Missouri 'home', the memories of LA still made her homesick. She thought about remaking those memories with her new friends, but she didn't want to completely replace all of her memories just yet. She hadn't spoken to Rosy or Symone since her birthday -which was now exactly three weeks ago- and she couldn't stand the idea of completely removing their friendship from her life, even though she had slowly been doing that ever since she got on the plane to Missouri. She loved her new friends and she knew they'd never be able to completely replace her other friends, but they had replaced them enough for Gigi to think about them more than her supposed "best friends", which made her feel a bit guilty. She didn't even realise how long she had been walking until Nancy pulled her out of her thoughts by trying to walk the opposite way of where they were going and she decided that the dog was probably tired and that they should get going back home.

  
And tired she was, because half way through the walk back to the house, she stopped walking until Gigi carried her.

  
When Gigi opened the front door, she carefully placed Nancy onto the ground and unhooked her leash from her collar and closed the door, placing the leash on the key hooks that were attached to the wall. She heard noise in the kitchen and knew it was her dad by the fact that her mom's car was no longer outside the house when she got back, so she was about to walk upstairs to her room when she heard the kitchen door open and saw her father looking at her.

  
"You're home." He said with a hint of uncertainty in his voice

  
"I am." Gigi deadpanned, placing her hand on the banister of the stairs "I'm going to my friend's house _later_."

  
"Can you come in here for a second?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows "I need to talk to you for a minute."

  
"Sure." Gigi answered, not knowing why she had said that. She felt her whole body tense up as she walked away from the stairs and followed her dad into the kitchen to where he was now sitting at the table.

  
"Sit." He commanded, eyeing the seat across from him. He didn't say anything else for a few seconds until Gigi was sat across from him "Your mom and I have been talking a lot recently. About you."

  
"Okay?" Gigi responded, she wasn't sure what was about to happen, but she was hoping it wasn't going to ruin her mood for the rest of the day

  
"I, well, _we_ think that some apologies need to be made." He stated, the look he was giving Gigi made her feel nervous but angry 

"By who? Me? Cause I-

  
"I'm sorry." He interrupted, his posture switching from stiff and upright to a bit more relaxed, like he was getting the words off his chest "For everything. All of those things I've said to you, all of the ways I've made you feel... Everything."

  
"Where's this all coming from?" Gigi asked, absolutely stunned by her dad's words "Last time we talked you seemed pretty adamant on what you were saying." 

"That things you said that day," Her dad started "that you hated me, and that I'm willing to lose a daughter to keep a son. They shocked me, honestly. I thought I was just doing what was best for you this whole time. I thought that it was probably a phase and that you should wait until you were older to actually do something about it if you still felt like this, but what you said made me think about it differently. I realised that you were right, I wanted a son and it was difficult for me to comprehend the fact that the little boy I raised didn't want that, but it still hurts to know that I made you hate me. So your mom and I have been talking about it for a while, about what I can do to make it up to you and we decided that I'm going to start seeing a therapist."

  
Gigi was completely dumbfounded, her dad had never apologised to her before, let alone changed his ways by any means for her. She didn't know how to react, so she just sat there silently until her dad continued to speak.

  
"I know that me seeing a therapist doesn't necessarily make things better for you," He sighed "so we've set up an appointment for you too, with a different type of therapist though."

"What?" Was all Gigi could ask, her eyebrows furrowing

  
"A gender therapist." He clarified, making Gigi's eyes widen "His office is about thirty minutes outside of the town, I've paid for your first appointment with him in advance and if he helps, I'll pay for more. Your mom said she'll take you to your appointment with him if you want her to. He's the best in the state and according to your mom, he's very kind. At least he was over the phone."

  
"You're kidding," Was all Gigi could manage to say "are you kidding? Dad this isn't funny if you're-

  
"I'm not kidding Gigi." He interrupted, he sounded unsure of himself, but he tried to seem as confident as he could. Even though Gigi had been called that name for years by several people, it felt so foreign coming from her dad, but that was completely overshadowed by the fact that her dad had just called her the right name for the first time and she felt like she was about to cry "You're appointment's on Janurary 10th."

  
"Holy shit" Gigi muttered, covering her mouth with her hands. She couldn't believe any of it, it felt too good to be true, she almost pinched herself to check before her phone buzzed in her pocket as if to remind her that it was, in fact, not a dream and actually real life. When she took her phone out, she saw that it was a text from Crystal and for the first time in a while, she didn't text back, she just slid her phone back into her pocket and looked back at her dad.

  
"Who was that?" He inquired

  
"Just Crystal." Gigi answered bluntly

  
"Your girlfriend?" He asked, making her cheeks suddenly turn into a light shade of pink "Your mom mentioned her a few weeks ago, as another example of you not trusting me with things out of multiple."

  
"You're not mad?" Gigi asked

  
"It'll take me time to get used to all of this," He answered, sitting back up and straightening his posture "but it's hard right now. So I won't say anything."

  
"Thanks dad."

  
"You're welcome... Gigi."

When Gigi got back to her bedroom, she still hadn't completely processed what had happened just moments ago. She sat in front of her vanity and stared at herself in the mirror, she wanted to take off her makeup to get ready for Crystal's, but she found herself just staring, trying to get the gears in her brain to start moving again and to let her understand what was happening but at this point she had pretty much malfunctioned. It took her a good few minutes of blank staring before she could reboot and start functioning like an actual human being. She had over an hour and a half to get ready, as her and Crystal were going to meet up and hang out for a while before getting picked up by Jan so they could all hang around the town with their group of friends. Crystal and Gigi had decided that they were just going to see how long it took their friends to notice that they were now dating, Crystal betting $10 that they'd notice in five minutes and Gigi guessed they'd notice instantly, so while Gigi eventually started to get ready, she was planning ways to get their friends to notice as soon as possible so she could win that bet.

The first thing Gigi had to do was shower, which was one of her least favourite things to do. She started showering with the lights off when her dysphoria was at its worst, but today she wasn't feeling too bad, so she showered with the lights on. When she was finished in the shower, she quickly covered herself in a towel and hurried back to her room to change into her clothes for the day. She decided that she was just going to wear a pair of jeans and a comfy green sweater that she tucked into the pants and a pair of doc martens. She parted her hair so it fell over her collar bones and sat back down in front of her vanity to redo her makeup and make it look more presentable like it usually does.

When she was finished her makeup, her phone started buzzing on her bed, so she sprayed her setting spray over her face and walked over to the bed, she smiled when she realised that Crystal was calling her and quickly answered the phone.

"Hey baby," Gigi greeted as she held the phone to her ear and hopped onto her bed "what's up?"

"You nearly ready?" Crystal asked "I'm bored and don't wanna wait another twenty minutes to see you!"

"I think so?" Gigi answered, looking around her room for her bag "If I'm not, you can just come in and wait I guess."

"Will I head there no then?" 

"Yeah sure"

"Okie doke! I'll see you in a couple minutes!" Crystal excitedly said into the phone, Gigi could basically hear her smile

"See you!" Gigi replied, hanging up shortly after

Gigi got up from her bed and approached her bag, opening it to see what she had already packed, realising it she hadn't packed anything, so she just decided to wait until Crystal came so she could help her pick out some clothes for the next day and maybe even an outfit for New Years while they were at it.

She sat down on the floor beside her bag, scrolling through her social medias for a few minutes until she heard the doorbell, making her quickly get up to run down the stairs before her dad could answer the door. Even though he knew she and Crystal were in a relationship, Gigi still didn't want the two talking to each other, she didn't know what her dad would end up saying to Crystal and she was too scared to find out. The last thing she needed right now was for Crystal to find out what her deadname was because of Gigi's dad. Gigi didn't know if her dad actually _would_ deadname her to Crystal, but she wasn't willing to find out. When she was at the top of the stairs, she saw her dad opening the front door, with Crystal standing outside, looking quite uncomfortable at the sight of Gigi's dad, who she hadn't met before.

"Crystal! Hi!" Gigi called when she was half way down the stairs 

"So you're the girlfriend." Gigi's dad commented, looking Crystal up and down before looking over his shoulder at Gigi, Gigi was visibly cringing at how uncomfortable and confused Crystal looked 

"Dad, can you just let her in?" Gigi asked, leaning against the banister of the stairs "We're only gonna be a few minutes then we'll be gone."

Without saying anything, Gigi's dad stepped away from the door to let Crystal in and closed the door once she stepped inside the house.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Goode!" Crystal nervously said, extending her hand for Gigi's dad to shake

"You too." Gigi's dad deadpanned, shaking her hand 

"Come on Crys, I need help picking out some clothes." Gigi stated, hoping that the painfully awkward moment would end 

Crystal looked over at Gigi, then at her father, who gave her an approving nod to let her go upstairs with Gigi. Crystal gave Gigi's dad a small smile and walked towards upstairs, following Gigi to her room.

"That was scary!" Crystal laughed, closing Gigi's bedroom door as they entered the room

"Tell me about it!" Gigi chuckled, walking over to her closet "Okay, now help me pick something quick so we can leave."

Soon enough, the two were at Crystal's house, sitting in her room. Crystal was sitting on her bed, her back leaning against her checkered print wall while Gigi was lying down with her head resting on Crystal's lap. Gigi felt very at ease now that she was finally with Crystal, she always felt at ease with her, she had the most calming energy despite being a very energetic person. Gigi noticed that Crystal would stare at her a lot, which made her heart flip in her chest. She loved how sweetly Crystal would look at her every time they were with each other, Crystal made her feel confident. Gigi blamed all of her newly found confidence on Crystal, though, that wasn't a bad thing at all. She was beyond grateful to have someone like Crystal as a girlfriend, someone that could make her feel extremely confident by just being there for her, someone that could cheer her up when she's at her lowest with just a few simple words, someone that's just... Crystal.

"Hey Geeg," Crystal started, softly stroking her girlfriends hair, making Gigi only hum in response "how come you told your dad about us? I mean, I don't have a problem with it obviously! I just thought that you weren't going to because of.. you know?"

Gigi shifted her position so she could look at Crystal better and smiled under the feeling of her girlfriend's touch "I didn't tell him, my mom did. It's fine though, he doesn't really care that much." 

"Without telling you?" Crystal asked, furrowing her brows "Does she not realise that's not okay? She should've told you before saying anything to him!"

"Babe, don't worry!" Gigi assured, sitting up and placing her hands on Crystal's shoulders "She did it to help, I promise."

"Did it help?" Crystal questioned, raising a brow but smiling when Gigi responded with a nod "That's good then, but still, your mom should tell you first." 

"I know, I know." Gigi chuckled and planted a quick kiss on Crystal's cheek "Did you end up telling your parents?"

"Oh! Yeah I did!" Crystal answered with a toothy grin that made Gigi's heart melt "They were pretty cool with it, my mom was like 'oh finally! I didn't think you'd ask her out! I thought I'd have to do it for you!'"

Gigi laughed at the impression Crystal did of her mother and rested her head in the space between her shoulder and neck while she tried to contain her giggles. Crystal was the funniest person she knew, even when she didn't mean to be, she just had such a fun presence that Gigi found intoxicating, making her burst into uncontrollable fits of giggles every time Crystal said something she found even slightly funny. She felt like the stereotypical dumb cheerleader girlfriend that she'd seen in movies, the ones that would laugh at the littlest things their boyfriends said to boost their egos, but only Gigi wasn't trying to boost Crystal's ego, she just genuinely found her funny.

Once Gigi's giggles died down, the two sat in comfortable silence, Gigi breathing in the fruity and floral scent of Crystal's hair as she kept her head in the crook of her girlfriend's neck while Crystal went back to stroking her hair. They both wanted to stay like that for eternity, just with each other in peace.

"You're so cute" Crystal whispered, tilting her head so that it was resting on Gigi's "How'd I get so lucky?"

"Oh shut up." Gigi chuckled, wrapping her arms around Crystal's waist and tightly hugging her

"Why?" Crystal asked "I just wanna know how I got so lucky to have been blessed with the most beautiful girlfriend I could ask for."

"I could ask the same thing." Gigi replied, smiling against Crystal's neck

"Okay lovebirds!" Elena called from the door, making the two girls jump and back away from each other "Your friends are downstairs!"

Crystal responded to Elena in Spanish, which Gigi couldn't understand no matter how much Crystal had tried to tutor her over the past few months. The two girls were scarlet red and visibly flustered by Elena just appearing out of nowhere, so Gigi assumed that Crystal was telling off her mom, but the fact that Elena's reactions were only laughs and eyerolls confused Gigi.

When Elena left the room, the two girls stood up and made their way down the stairs to greet their friends.

"Did we interrupt something?" Jackie asked with a smirk as she noticed the two girl's red faces

"Shut up."

The girls spent the day in the town, picking up any last minute Christmas presents for family members and just hanging around the mall. Jan had tried to convince everyone to buy Christmas jumpers to match the purple one she was wearing, but everyone refused, making Jan whine like a child until Jackie bought one, even though she wasn't going to wear it as she would be spending Christmas with her Persian mom that year. Like usual, they ate at the food court together, Crystal and Gigi holding hands under the table the entire time. They both had forgotten about their bet to see how long it took their friends to notice, so they were both being as sly as possible while also trying to act natural, which they were surprisingly good at. When they got back to Crystal's house later on that day, they all stayed in Crystal's room, talking, playing games on Crystal's PlayStation and Switch and just enjoying each other's company.

Gigi had started to wish that she had bought one of the Christmas jumpers at the mall as she was starting to get really cold. Decembers in Missouri were very harsh compared to LA, as she could usually just wear her regular clothes during winters there without a problem, but she felt like she needed too many layers to feel warm in Missouri. Crystal noticed how cold Gigi was getting as she could see her teeth chattering whenever she wasn't talking, so Crystal got up from her seat and threw a hoodie from one of her drawers over at Gigi. It was fairly oversized, so it'd more than likely fit the taller girl. Gigi smiled and mouthed a quick 'thank you' before putting on the hoodie over her green sweater. It was large and comfortable with sleeves that almost covered her hands and it smelt like Crystal, making Gigi never want to take it off.

Soon enough the girl's conversations started to die down as they all watched a movie together on Crystal's floor. Throughout the movie, Gigi was unable to concentrate as she remembered the fact that she was supposed to be coming out to the rest of the group that day, making the confidence she had been gaining over the past few weeks slowly fade, she started fidgeting with the sleeves of the hoodie Crystal gave her until she felt Crystal's hand on her knee. She looked over at Crystal to see her giving her a sympathetic smile.

"It's okay." Crystal mouthed, squeezing the black haired girl's knee

Gigi nodded and looked back down at her hands for a moment, before looking back up at the movie and trying to pay attention, but the only thing on her mind was the possible reactions of the group.

When the movie ended, Gigi felt her heart start to race in her chest, she was prepared to tell the girls, she was ready, but the anxiety of coming out was still something she wasn't sure how to deal with.

"You ready?" Crystal asked, giving Gigi an encouraging smile

"Ready for what?" Jan questioned, tilting her head at the two

"Okay.. Okay okay." Crystal started, trying to think of the right thing to say "Gigi wanted to tell you guys something, it's pretty personal."

The rest of the girl's turned to face Gigi with intrigued yet concerned expressions, making Gigi feel even more nervous. She continued to fidget with the cuffs of the hoodie's sleeves as she gathered her words in her head, trying to find the best possible thing to say.

"I just really feel like you guys needed to know this." Gigi muttered, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone "I hope you guys won't be mad or hate me or anything."

None of the girls said anything so Gigi could continue.

"Before I actually say it, I just want to let you guys know that this is really important to me." Gigi sighed, glancing at each of the girls sitting around her "And it's difficult to say this to anyone, so I hope you can understand why I didn't say it sooner."

Gigi paused for a moment, trying to gather up the courage to actually say the two words she said to Crystal just a few weeks prior. Crystal held her hand for support, interlacing their fingers and giving her hand an encouraging squeeze.

"It's okay Gee," Crystal whispered again "you can say it."

Gigi nodded at Crystal's words and looked up at their friends, taking a deep breath before finally speaking again.

"I'm trans."

The room stayed silent.

"I know it's a shocking thing to hear, but I just hope you guys are okay with it." Gigi sighed, squeezing Crystal's hand tighter

"So.." Jackie mumbled, trying to process the information "What does that mean exactly?"

"Well, it means I was born a boy," Gigi answered, trying to keep her words as simple as possible for her friends to understand "but I'm actually a girl."

"I can't say I was expecting that." Jan stated "I mean, you don't look like a boy."

"That's because I'm not one." Gigi replied, she knew she had to be patient when she was coming out, but that didn't make it easier to take blissfully ignorant statements

"No no! I didn't mean it like that!" Jan defended with an apologetic look "I'm sorry, I just wasn't expecting this is all. I don't hate you though."

"Yeah, none of us hate you!" Heidi assured her with a smile

"We just... might not understand that much." Rock stated

Gigi let out a relieved sigh at her friends words, she was so grateful that Crystal was right and that they wouldn't hate her.

"Are you.. medically transitioning?" Jackie inquired "Sorry if that's rude, I just don't know what's okay to ask."

"Not right now." Gigi shook her head "But I have an appointment with a gender therapist on the 10th, so I'll hopefully be able to start sometime in the next year or two."

"Wait, seriously?" Crystal asked, tilting her head with a bright smile "Why didn't you tell me? That's great news!"

"I only found out today actually!" Gigi answered, turning to face Crystal with just as bright of a smile "My dad told me before you came over!"

"So your parents are obviously okay with everything then?" Jan asked with a smile

"Yep!" Gigi answered excitedly "My mom is the reason I'm even able to go to this therapist! Even though my dad was the one who set up the appointment."

"Your dad's on board now too?" Crystal raised a brow

"A whole mess of a situation happened for him to be on board, but yeah! He is!" Gigi stated "He even called me Gigi today!" 

"Babe! That's so great!" Crystal replied, giving Gigi a quick kiss on the cheek

The two girls had realised that their friends had gone silent again, so they looked over at them to see that they were staring at the two with surprised expressions on their faces. Making Gigi and Crystal remember that they never actually told the group about their relationship.

"Oh, right." Crystal chuckled, giving her friends a toothy grin "Gigi and I are dating!"

"I hope that's all the secrets you're keeping from us!" Heidi snorted

"It is! Don't worry!" Gigi assured

The air in the room felt lighter now, more relaxing to Gigi. She was very relieved to have gotten the reaction she got from her friends and was grateful to have them by her side, even if they were still less educated than Gigi would've liked, but she couldn't do anything about that other than try to educate them as much as possible. The girls had all agreed to not say anything to anyone else about Gigi's identity in order to keep her safe, which Gigi was most definitely relieved for. They also had silly play arguments about why Crystal and Gigi hadn't announced their relationship sooner, Rock calling it a 'betrayal amongst the group'.

"Wait, you said your appointment with that therapist was on the 10th, right?" Jan asked, making Gigi raise a brow

"Yeah," Gigi answered "why?"

"We have a game on the 10th." Jan stated "You can't miss it, Jaida will slaughter you!"

"I won't miss it!" Gigi retorted with a smile "What kind of teammate would I be if I missed our first big game of the year?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter wasn't good at all. Honestly I hate it sm but I needed to post something or else I'd feel awful.  
> This chapter didn't end up coming out the way I wanted it to, but hopefully I'll actually be able to write the next chapter without feeling bad for how shitty it is 
> 
> If there's any continuity errors in this chapter, I'll try to fix them as soon as possible!! But right now it's almost 5am and I haven't slept so I'm not rly in the best mindset to read through everything thoroughly and change things <3333 
> 
> I hope you're all doing better than I am right now lol and that you have or have had a great day!!!!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this chapter took almost a week to come out!!! I'm still in a shit place rn but I'm getting better and even have some of the next chapter written already!!! 
> 
> I'm really happy that I was able to finish this chapter, cause for the past few days I've been beating myself up over not finishing it quickly enough :( 
> 
> I hope you like it though!!

On Christmas Eve morning, Gigi was the first one awake once again, this time on Crystal's bed with Crystal's arms wrapped around her waist, when she realised this her face felt hot. She thought she'd be uncomfortable to wake up in her girlfriend's arms, especially with their other friends sleeping in the same room, but she wasn't uncomfortable at all, in fact she was the complete opposite. Gigi desperately wanted to turn and face Crystal, to cuddle into her and cover her in kisses, but she didn't want to wake her up when she was sleeping so peacefully and she especially didn't want their first kiss to be that casual. The two would kiss each other on the cheek and forehead quite a lot, but they both silently agreed that a kiss on the lips should be saved for the perfect moment.

Gigi almost jumped out of her skin when she felt Crystal's lips on her neck, usually Crystal was the last one to wake up, so the fact that she was awake at the same time as Gigi startled her, but she quickly calmed down when she heard Crystal respond with a breathy chuckle and shifted her position to face her.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Gigi whispered, reaching her hand up to cup Crystal's cheek

"I don't think so," Crystal hummed, leaning into Gigi's touch "wanna go make some breakfast?"

"Sure."

The two girls quietly got up from Crystal's bed, stepping around the sleeping bodies on the floor and leaving the room with the door open ajar to avoid making any noise while closing it. Gigi hadn't realised that she had fell asleep in Crystal's hoodie until that point, she felt warm and comfortable, much like Crystal who was wearing a nightgown that was hanging from her door.

When the two got downstairs, Gigi looked out the window beside the front door to see that Jan's minivan was the only car outside the house, meaning Crystal's parents were gone to work. She didn't know what time it was, but she was relieved that she wasn't up too early as Crystal said her parents usually left at 6am - 7am.

"You want coffee?" Crystal asked, walking over to the coffee maker on the kitchen counter

"Please," Gigi chuckled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the sleeve of Crystal's hoodie "I'd kill for a coffee."

"Well I don't wanna die today so" Crystal laughed as she took two mugs from a cupboard 

Gigi sat down at the table of the fairly small kitchen and looked around it, she'd been in Crystal's house several times, but she never took in anything other than her room. The walls of the kitchen were painted white and elephant's breath grey, it was nice, Gigi thought it was pretty. There wasn't a lot of space in the kitchen, there was enough for all the girls and Crystal's parents, but you probably wouldn't get too many other people in there without it feeling packed. The table was mahogany, much like all of the cupboards and drawers the kitchen contained. There were sliding back doors at the end of the room which lead to the small back yard with nothing much other than a shed, a table and a few chairs. It was a lot more simplistic than Gigi's home, both in Missouri and LA and most definitely simpler than Jan's, though everyone's house seemed to be simpler than hers, even Nicky's which was the biggest house on Crystal's street. Gigi wondered if her and Crystal would have a simple house together one day, like a cottage or big city apartment. Maybe they'd bring Tic Tac with them, so the place would be filled with cat toys. Maybe they'd paint the walls together and draw all over them while listening to their favourite music. Maybe they'd make messes and kiss their worries away. Maybe they'd-

"What're you thinking about?" Crystal asked with a smile, causing Gigi to snap out of her thoughts and back to reality

"Oh, nothing." Gigi answered, feeling herself getting flustered

"Well, you looked pretty happy thinking about nothing." Crystal commented, bringing the now-ready coffee to the table and placing it on top of a coaster in front of Gigi

"Yep. Thinking about nothing is when I'm at my happiest." Gigi joked, blowing on her coffee before taking a sip

"You should think about nothing more than," Crystal chuckled "cause you look really cute when you do."

"Shut up." Gigi grumbled, looking down at her coffee with rosy cheeks

The two sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, just drinking their coffee in peace. At one point Crystal made pop tarts for the two as she was saving most of her breakfast foods for when the others would wake up, so they got to fill their stomachs with something other than coffee. Crystal noticed that Gigi had some crumbs stuck to the corner of her lips, so she scooted her chair closer to Gigi and gently brushed them away with her thumb. Gigi's face went red almost instantly.

"Sorry," Crystal giggled when she saw Gigi's reaction "you had food on your face."

"Th-Thanks." Gigi stumbled, giving Crystal an embarrassed smile

"You're so cute when you're embarrassed." Crystal stated, cupping Gigi's cheek in her hand

"I hate you." Gigi said sarcastically, rolling her eyes

"I know." Crystal hummed, leaning closer to Gigi

The two girls found themselves leaning closer to each other, both of their faces feeling hot. Once their noses touched, they stopped and stared into each others eyes. They both wanted to close the gap, but were hesitant. Their first kiss had to be perfect, but what was more perfect than a peaceful morning together? It was obvious that the two didn't know what to do as they continued to stare into each other's eyes. Gigi closed her eyes to let Crystal make the decision about whether or not they would kiss, but before Crystal could react, the door to the kitchen opened.

"Ew," Rock scoffed, making Gigi and Crystal back away from each other with bright red faces "get a room!"

"We had one but y'all invaded it!" Crystal joked, rolling her eyes

The girls all laughed together as Heidi walked over to the cupboard to get everyone else cups, picking specific mugs for each girl, which seemed to be assigned to them. Jackie took her and Jan's cups and made them both coffee while Jan was basically attached to her, her hands wrapping around Jackie's waist. Rock looted the fridge for pancake mix and Gigi realised that everyone was a lot more comfortable in Crystal's house than she was, making her feel a tang of jealousy. She knew that everyone knew each other for years and she'd only known them a few months, but she felt jealous of the others for being more comfortable in her girlfriend's house than she was.

When the pancakes were made, the girls sat at the table and ate them together. Crystal and Rock's were almost soggy from the amount of maple syrup they had poured on theirs, while the rest of the girls had little to no syrup on there's at all.

"Hey baby Geeg," Jackie started, taking a sip of coffee from her mug that read '#1 Aunt', Gigi smiled at the nickname "What does your family usually do for Christmas?"

"For the past few years we haven't really done much together." Gigi answered "We'd exchange presents and that'd be it because of my dad and I's relationship. I'd have dinner at my friend Symone's and we'd hang out in her pool."

"Her pool?" Jan asked, raising a brow "Is LA really that hot?"

"A lot hotter than here that's for sure." Gigi chuckled "This is the coldest winter I've ever had."

"Really?" Rock gasped with a mouth full of pancake "It's not even that cold this year! It hasn't even snowed!"

"I hope it does though." Gigi stated "I've never seen snow before."

"You'll love it!" Jackie replied, making Gigi smile "If it snows any time after Christmas, we should all hang out so we can experience your first snow day together!"

"That sounds fun!" Gigi smiled "I'd like that!"

At around 12pm, Jan drove Jackie, Rock and Heidi home, all the girls wishing Gigi and Crystal Merry Christmases before departing. The two girls were alone in Crystal's house, so they decided to sit in the living room and watch TV while cuddling on the couch. They didn't have much else to do, so they were happy to just sit together and enjoy each others company in their pajamas that they should've changed out of hours ago.

Gigi loved being able to be lazy and cuddle with Crystal, it made her think about them living together again. She thought about them sleeping in on a Sunday morning, or making each other breakfast in bed. She imagined them waking each other up with loving kisses and talking about the dreams they had or plans for the day. Their life would be so domestic together and that was all Gigi wanted, but she was embarrassed about how much she thought of their future as they hadn't been dating that long and she didn't want to move things too quickly.

"You hungry?" Crystal asked, glancing at Gigi through the corner of her eye

"Not really," Gigi shrugged, trying to ignore her previous thoughts "I could use another coffee though."

Crystal smiled and kissed Gigi's forehead as she got up from the couch and made her way to the kitchen, leaving Gigi on the couch to watch TV by herself.

While she was watching TV, she heard music playing from the radio in the kitchen, she couldn't recognise the song as it was in Spanish but she could hear Crystal singing along to it. Crystal wasn't a singer at all, but her attempts at singing always amused Gigi, this time was no exception. Gigi eventually got bored of sitting by herself, so she walked into the kitchen to see Crystal dancing by herself while turning on the coffee maker. Gigi thought she was absolutely adorable, so she approached Crystal and danced beside her. Crystal giggled seeing her girlfriend's dances, so she grabbed her hands to dance with her. Crystal tried to twirl Gigi around, but she had to stand on her tippie toes while Gigi had to slightly crouch down to spin her successfully. Crystal closed her eyes while they danced together, but Gigi kept hers open to watch the way Crystal moved. Gigi loved seeing every single side of Crystal, absolutely everything about the girl made Gigi's heart melt. She'd never had a girlfriend quite like Crystal, well, she never had a girlfriend at all, but if she did she knew they wouldn't even compare to the ginger.

They weren't dancing for long, but to Gigi it felt like forever, not that she was complaining though. Once the coffee was ready, Crystal kissed the knuckles of one of Gigi's hands before handing her cup to her. Crystal was perfect, she was everything Gigi could ever want. She was also everything Gigi wanted to be. Fuck, the more Gigi stared at Crystal, the more she felt envious. She hated that feeling, Crystal never tried to make her feel that way, in fact, Crystal tried to help her as much as possible, but she still had moments where her stomach would drop while looking at her girlfriend. Gender envy was a bitch, just when Gigi was at her happiest and most content with Crystal, gender envy would decide come in and remind her that Crystal is everything she wanted to be but couldn't.

Crystal could see the frown on Gigi's face from across the kitchen where she was now sitting at the table. Crystal knew Gigi got insecure around her and it hurt her heart to see Gigi anything other than happy, so she'd do her best to help whenever she could. One thing she realised worked very well was just complimenting her like she would anyone else, though she'd do that anyway, unless Gigi asked her not to. 

"Has anyone ever told you that you look like a model?" Crystal asked with a loving smile, leaning her head on her hand

Gigi felt her heart do flips in her chest as she took a sip of her coffee "No." She answered

"Well they should." Crystal stated, taking a sip of hers as well "You're perfect! Probably the most perfect person I've ever met. Like, I've never met someone so model worthy."

"I used to want to be a model when I was a kid," Gigi laughed, sitting across from Crystal at the table "you should've seen me, posing like my life depended on it!" 

"Probably still just as beautiful as you are now." Crystal replied, causing Gigi to blush "Seriously Geeg, I've never met a girl as perfect as you."

"You're so cheesy" Gigi snickered. Crystal had somehow always managed to alleviate Gigi of that envious feeling she'd get, Gigi sometimes wondered if she had magic powers or something.

"You're not wrong."

Gigi stayed in Crystal's hoodie when she got home that day, only changing her pants so she wouldn't be in pajamas for the rest of the day. Her mom, Kristi, thought it was cute, even jokingly teasing Gigi about it. Gigi didn't mind her mom's reaction though, in fact, she expected teasing from her. When Gigi told her mom that she liked Crystal, her mom warned her that she'll definitely poke fun at her and tease if the two ever started dating, and once they did, she lived up to the warning. Gigi's dad didn't say much about the hoodie other than ask where she got it and saying "that's nice" when she said it was Crystal's and Gigi was perfectly content with that. She wasn't ready to start having an overly close relationship with her dad like her mom wanted, at least not yet. Gigi was still warming up to her dad and trying to be patient with him while he was educating himself on her situation and trying to better himself. Patience was one thing Gigi had a good amount of, so she was willing to wait for her dad to catch up with her mom when it comes to supporting her, even if it was going to take a while. 

When Gigi went up to her room, she plopped herself onto her bed and cuddled into her blankets while going through her social medias on her phone and decided to post a few pictures of her and her friends from the day before, there was one picture her finger hovered over that she wanted to post but couldn't. It was a selfie of her and Crystal, with the ginger kissing her cheek while the two girl put their hands together to make a heart shape. All she wanted was to be out and proud and be open about her relationship with Crystal, but she wouldn't do anything that Crystal wasn't comfortable with, and after her experience with Nicky, Gigi was certain that Crystal would not be at all comfortable with her telling the world about their relationship just yet. So, she posted the rest of the pictures, they were all mostly nice pictures of the friends laughing, smiling or posing, but she had a few chaotically blurry pics with one being the girls running towards the camera, one being all of the girls doing gun signs with their hands pointing to Crystal's cat Tic Tac and even one of Rock in midair as she jumped off of Crystal's bed.

She still wanted to show people the cute picture of her and Crystal though, so she sent it to the girl's group chat on instagram (which was now called "Gays Anonymous" with a few salsa dancing emojis beside the name) and sent a few heart emojis after it with the message "we're the superior couple"

**cryst4l_m3thyd:** omg look at us <3

 **cryst4l_m3thyd:** we rly said lesbian rights

 **jackie.cox:** Jan and I have been saying lesbian rights longer than you two.

 **backpackjan:** yea we're the superior lesbians

 **thegigigoode:** that's just simply false

 **jackie.cox:** Sorry baby Geege, but it's the truth!!

 **cryst4l_m3thyd:** no <3

While Gigi was laughing at the groupchat, she got a notification, saying that someone was requesting to send her a message. She clicked on the notif and saw that it was Nicky.

**D_Nicky:** hey Gigi, it's me Nicky from cheer. ik you're probably busy because it's Christmas Eve and all, but I just need someone to talk to rn.

Gigi raised a brow at the message, her and Gigi hadn't talked much since her birthday, when the French girl had dumped out all of her feelings and told Gigi about her past, so Gigi wasn't sure if Nicky would actually take her suggestion from that day: 'Dm me on instagram if you need to talk about anything'. Gigi was glad that Nicky did decide to message her though, so she could be the support that she wanted to be for Nicky.

**thegigigoode:** hey! I'm not busy, what's up??

 **D_Nicky:** can you call?

Without even answering the text, Gigi clicked the call button in the corner of the screen, but turned her camera off so she could hold the phone to her ear while she talked. When Nicky answered, there were a few seconds of silence before Gigi decided to speak first.

"So what's up?" Gigi asked again, she didn't want to force anything out of Nicky, but she was definitely concerned and wanted to know as much as Nicky was willing to tell her

"Well, it's about Jaida." Nicky answered "We got into this big argument and I just need someone to talk to so I can organise my thoughts."

"Are you okay?" Gigi inquired, an obviously concerned tone in her voice "What happened?"

"She said she wants to come out, like, publicly." Nicky stated "But she said she wont because of what happened with Crystal."

"Okay?"

"She said I need to apologise to her," Nicky sighed "but I can't and Jaida won't listen to me."

"She is right though Nicks." Gigi replied, hoping she wasn't sounding insensitive "I know it's hard, but Crystal deserves an apology from you. She hasn't told me about what happened between you two at all, but I know she'd appreciate it if you just explained yourself."

"I'm just scared to do it." Nicky said "There's so much that happened that you and Jaida don't know about, and I'm scared that Crystal will bring it up publicly if she doesn't take my apology well."

"Look, Nicks," Gigi started, starting to get stuck for words "I don't know everything that happened and I wont pry to get that information, but I know Crystal and I'm certain that she wouldn't do anything to hurt you. You just need to take accountability for what you did in the past and let her know your side of things. Trust me, she'll listen."

"This is all just so much." Nicky sighed "I want Jaida to be able to come out, but it kind of feels like I'm being pulled out with her by having to talk to Crystal." 

"Does Jaida know you're not ready?" Gigi asked

"It's not that I'm not ready!" Nicky answered "I'm ready to come out, but not talk to Crystal. I just want to take baby steps."

"Babies have to learn to walk at some point, they can't keep crawling forever." Gigi replied "Coming out can suck sometimes, but you'll have so much support once you do it. Other people will be able to see you and Jaida, two popular cheerleaders coming out and being happy together and they'll know it's okay to come out too! You can set an example for so many people Nicks!"

"You're right." Nicky agreed "I just don't know what to say, or when to say it."

"Well, we can try figure that out now then." 

Gigi and Nicky talked on the phone for over an hour, trying to figure out the best way for Nicky to apologise to Crystal and then just chatting about school and cheer once they had figured it out. Once the call ended, Gigi spent the rest of the day relaxing in bed on her phone with the Kermit the frog plush that Crystal bought her sitting beside her. She ended up going to bed early that night, at around 10pm. 

She ended up waking up during the night by her phone vibrating on her bedside table, she turned towards it and picked it up, squinting under the bright light of the screen. When she saw that Crystal was calling her, she smiled and answered, putting the phone to her ear.

"Merry Christmas!" Crystal greeted, making Gigi raise a brow

"What?" Gigi responded

"It's midnight!" Crystal stated "So, Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas Crys," Gigi chuckled "have you just been waiting up all night to say that?"

"Of course I have!" Crystal giggled "What do you think? Missouri Christmas better than LA Christmas?" 

"It just turned midnight Crystal," Gigi rolled her eyes "so I don't think anything!"

"Have you not looked outside?" Crystal asked

Gigi's brows furrowed as she turned to look over at her window, gasping as she noticed that snow was falling outside.

"Oh my god!" Gigi whispered excitedly "It's snowing!"

"You wanna hang out in the snow?" Crystal asked

"Crys." Gigi started "Are you outside again?"

"Maybe." Crystal giggled

"I'll be right out."

Gigi hung up the phone and hopped out of her bed, grabbing a pair of socks and shoes before scurrying down the stairs and grabbing a coat from the hanger beside the front door and leaving the house quietly, seeing Crystal standing outside in her pajamas with a coat and boots on. Gigi was also in her pajamas (well, she was in Crystal's hoodie and pajama bottoms) so she didn't mind, she was just so excited to see snow for the first time, even if it was freezing outside.

"Oh my god!" Gigi gasped, looking up at the sky to watch the snowflakes fall "It's beautiful!"

"Almost as beautiful as a certain girl I know." Crystal smiled, gaining a groan and rolled eyes from Gigi

Gigi bent down to the grown and picked up a small amount of snow, trying her best to make a perfect snowball. Her result wasn't perfect, but it was a good enough snowball to throw at her girlfriend. Once the snow hit Crystal, she dramatically gasped, clutching her shirt as she pretended to be betrayed. 

"I can't believe you just tried to kill me!" Crystal jokingly whined

"That's what you get for trying to kill me with your skateboard that time!" Gigi snickered, making another snowball 

"Oh shut up!" Crystal laughed, making her own snowball "I didn't try to kill you that time!"

"That time?" Gigi asked, raising a brow

"Yeah, cause I'm gonna get you this time!" Crystal answered, throwing her snowball at Gigi's head

"You bitch!" Gigi laughed, trying to shake the snow out of her hair as she threw a snowball for revenge

The two continued to throw snowballs at each other for another few minutes, Crystal was definitely competitive when it came to snowball fights, she was a master at making snowballs faster than the speed of light and throwing them faster than Gigi thought was possible, she even leaped onto the ground to dodge Gigi's snowballs like she was dodging a bullet in an action movie. Gigi thought it was hilarious how Crystal could become so competitive over something so simple, but she admired how determined she was to win. Gigi knew she had lost when she turned around to grab a snowball and got three thrown at the back of her head, causing snow to cover her hair and back, so she turned to Crystal and laughed, raising her arms in defense and telling her that she won, making Crystal standing tall with pride and even calling herself a 'Snow Queen'. 

"Can we make a snow man?" Gigi asked, excitedly grabbing Crystals hands "Or snow woman?.... Snow person?"

"Yeah sure!" Crystal answered, squeezing Gigi's hands

The two spent the next few minutes piling up snow to build a snowman, it didn't look great in the end, but they were both still happy with how it turned out, even though they had to make the face out of rocks and stones from the front yard and made the arms out of a tree branch that Crystal broke off a tree and snapped in half.

"Wow, look at him!" Crystal giggled as she shoved the two branches into the sides of the snowman "Our son!"

"Didn't think I'd be a mom this early in life!" Gigi laughed, hugging Crystal from the side, her arms wrapped around the ginger's waist

"You and me both!" Crystal laughed back, her arm going around Gigi's waist

Gigi leaned her head on Crystal's shoulder as they both silently looked at their badly made snowman. Gigi felt so unbelievably happy in that moment, she thought nothing could make her happier. She never would've expected her first Christmas in Missouri to start off with her playing in the snow with a girlfriend, she never expected to have a girlfriend at all, but she wasn't complaining that things didn't go the way she thought they would've, she was beyond grateful to have Crystal in her life and she wouldn't change a single thing about it because of her. Gigi glanced at Crystal from the corner of her eye to see that adorable smile Crystal always carried on her face and turned her head to kiss her cheek.

What she wasn't expecting was for Crystal to do the same thing, so they ended up kissing each other's lips. When their lips connected, both girl's eyes widened and they backed away from each other and stared at each other before both of them burst into fits of giggles. All the anxiety Gigi had about her first kiss with Crystal meant nothing now. They had just accidentally kissed, but it felt perfect, just like she hoped it would. 

"I'm always ruining the perfect moment, aren't I?" Crystal laughed, making Gigi roll her eyes

"This moment isn't ruined babe," Gigi stated, grabbing Crystal's hands and intertwining their fingers "You just made it so much more perfect."

"You're so cute," Crystal cooed, freeing one of her hands from Gigi's grip to move a small strand of Gigi's black hair behind her ear "I should probably head home now, I don't want to be too tired tomorrow."

"That's okay," Gigi smiled, blushing under Crystal's touch "I'll see you soon though, right?"

"Of course." Crystal answered

Gigi pulled Crystal in for a tight hug, before backing away to head back inside her house and go to bed, but as she went to turn around, Crystal said her name.

"Yeah?" Gigi responded, raising a brow before Crystal cupped her cheeks with her hands and pulled her in for another kiss, this time it was more meaningful and passionate and Gigi felt like there were fireworks going off all over her body as she wrapped her arms around Crystal's waist while kissing her back. The kiss was short, but to the two girls it felt like time had stopped around them. Gigi would happily kiss Crystal forever.

"Goodnight Geeg," Crystal hummed as she pulled away from Gigi's face "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas Crys."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They did it!!!!!!! Woooo!!!!! 
> 
> Sorry this chapter isn't the best, but hopefully I'll get back into the rhythm of actually writing good chapters again soon!!!!!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for being so patient with me when it comes to posting!! And thank you so so much for all the positive feedback!! It means the world to me that people are enjoying my work! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!! 
> 
> Also, woah,, Dahlia?? Being nice in a fic??? Absolutely bonkers

New Years, that's fun, right? Well, Gigi never really thought so. She liked the excuse to party, but she didn't see much of a point in celebrating the new year when it was just going to be the same as the last, though this year things were a bit different. Gigi was excited to celebrate the new year for once, because she actually knew things would be different and she was more than ready to head into the new year with her head held high and her 'new' friends and girlfriend by her side.

With only a few days left until New Year's Eve, Jan informed the group of girls that she'd invited the rest of the cheer squad over for a party, but said that it'd only be the small group staying over for the night. The rest of the group was definitely reluctant at first, but when Jan said they could invite other people as well, they agreed. Gigi wasn't one of the art kids or academic kids like Rock, Jackie, Heidi and Crystal, but she could understand their reluctance towards being around just cheerleaders for the night. She remembered all those times where she had to spend the night with just cheerleaders at parties because of Symone and Rosy and how uncomfortable it would be sometimes, so she definitely didn't want to put her friends and girlfriend in that same situation. At least if her or Jan get forced to spend a lot of time with the rest of the cheer team, the rest of the group would have others to party with.

Gigi spent days trying to figure out the perfect outfit to wear, despite her friends telling her that it didn't matter. She had to look perfect in front of people outside of the friend group. After all, there were so many other perfect looking girls going to be there: Nicky, Jaida, Dahlia... Crystal. And a few others from the cheer squad of course (She always thought Brita and Rosé had amazing styles and wouldn't be surprised if they turned out some amazing fits for the party). Gigi was never the one to reuse outfits considering how stigmatised it was in LA, but she wasn't in LA anymore and no one in Missouri had seen her wear the outfit that she wore to pride those few years ago, so she decided on wearing that same fit, but possibly changing a few things like the jewellery or shoes since she had more of a variety to choose from now than she used to. She felt guilty for not wearing something new, but she remembered how perfect she felt when she wore that outfit for the first time and knew it would be the perfect fit for the night.

When it was finally New Years Eve, Gigi excitedly got ready a lot earlier than she originally planned, at 5pm, even though she wasn't going to Jan's until 9. Crystal was going to pick her up at 8.30pm, which was an hour and a half after she was finished getting ready. She was wearing the black romper that was cinched with a big white belt, along with fishnet tights, lots of jewellery and topped it off with the white faux fur jacket that she wore at Pride. While she was waiting for time to pass, she was downstairs in the living room on the couch with Nancy on her lap, looking through her social medias.

"Look at you all dolled up!" Kristi announced as she entered the room, making her daughter blush and smile "You look lovely! But isn't this a bit much for a night in with the girls?"

"Thanks mom," Gigi replied, putting her phone in the hidden pocket under her belt "Jan ended up inviting the rest of the cheer squad and the rest of the girls invited some others too, so it's basically a party. It's only me and the girls staying over though, no one else."

"How have the girls been treating you lately?" Kristi asked, sitting beside Gigi "Have they said anything?"

"They've all been fine with it," Gigi shrugged "nothing's changed."

  
"Is that good?" Kristi inquired

  
"I think so." Gigi answered "It just feels the same."

  
Kristi only nodded before turning on the TV and leaning back on the couch to relax, so Gigi took her phone back out of her pocket to text her friends while Nancy had now fallen asleep on her legs.

thegigigoode: so excited for tonight !! <3

  
backpackjan: me 2 sis!!! its gonna be so fun!

  
jackie.cox: Can't wait to see you girls! 

  
There wasn't much to do on her phone, so she put it back in her pocket to watch the TV with her mom. She didn't pay enough attention to know what the show was or what was happening, so she was mainly just zoning out while looking at the TV. Kristi left the room during the commercial break, which snapped Gigi back to reality. She looked down at her lap to see that Nancy was still sleeping, so she decided to just stay on the couch until Crystal came to pick her up, as there was nothing better to do.

  
Her dad came into the room and sat on a recliner chair beside the couch, not saying anything to Gigi, which she wasn't complaining about. On Christmas day, Gigi's family spent the entire day together, which was very unusual for them and ended up being extremely awkward, but Kristi was determined to get some quality family time, so she got just that. Gigi's dad had gotten her earrings as a gift, a pair of silver hoops that she absolutely adored. She assumed her mom picked them out for him to give to her, but she still appreciated it, which is why she decided to wear them with her outfit for the party. Her dad smiled once he noticed the earrings, so she gave him a small smile back, hoping there would be no awkward small talk between them.

  
"You look nice today." Her dad said. Great. Small talk

  
"Thanks." Gigi replied, looking down at her phone to check the time, it couldn't be going any slower

  
"When are you leaving?"

  
"Forty minutes." Gigi answered, avoiding the temptation to ask Crystal to pick her up early

  
Her dad took her short responses as a hint to stop talking, which Gigi was grateful for. She was on mostly good terms with her dad, but that didn't mean she wanted to talk to him.

  
Gigi felt relief wash over her body when her phone buzzed with a notification from Crystal saying "on my way <3" , so she responded with a heart emoji and put her phone back into her pocket. Nancy was still asleep on her lap, so she had to pick her up and gently place her on the couch before getting up to leave. 

"Crystal's on her way," Gigi stated, looking at her dad "I'll see you tomorrow."

  
"Have fun." Her father replied with a small smile

  
Gigi mirrored the smile and quickly left the room, giving her mom a hug goodbye and grabbing her bag from her bedroom. She stood outside while she waited for Crystal, now wearing the faux fur coat that she previously had sitting on her shoulders. She felt amazing, beautiful, hot. Any positive adjective, she was feeling at that moment, even though she was freezing cold. There was still some snow in the streets, but not as much as there was on Christmas. The snowman Gigi and Crystal made was still thriving and barely melted. The snowman was a tough one to explain to her parents on Christmas morning, but she ended up just admitting to them that her and Crystal had made it in the middle of the night, they weren't particularly amused by the story but when Gigi told them about her and Crystal's kiss, Kristi lit up and started to find the story a lot nicer. Gigi didn't know if Crystal had told her mom about Christmas night, but she could only assume that she didn't. 

After a few minutes of waiting, Crystal finally arrived at Gigi's in Elena's car and Gigi quickly hopped in, wanting to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

  
"Woah" Crystal gasped, looking Gigi up and down

  
"What?" Gigi questioned, furrowing her brows

  
"How am I dating you?" Crystal asked with a bright smile "You're so hot!"

  
"Oh shut up." Gigi laughed, rolling her eyes "Can we just get going to your place already? It's freezing."

  
When they got to Crystal's house, they went into the kitchen, where Elena was washing dishes at the sink. When the woman heard the two enter the room, she turned to face them with a bright smile before taking off her wet latex gloves and pulling Gigi into a welcoming hug, which Gigi greatly appreciated.

"Gigi! You look beautiful tonight!" Elena gasped, making Gigi blush "Cryssie, how did you even manage to get this one? Gigi's way out of your league!"

"Shut up mom!" Crystal laughed, playfully hitting Elena's arm "You don't have to remind her!"

All Gigi could do to respond was give an awkward chuckle, as she had no idea how else to react. Elena understood this as her cue to change the subject.

"You two can go to Crystal's room if you want," Elena stated, turning back to the sink to continue cleaning the dishes "I'll call you down when it's time to leave."

"Okay! Thanks mom!" Crystal replied, grabbing Gigi's wrist and pulling her out of the room and upstairs to her room

It wasn't until they actually got to Crystal's room that Gigi had gotten a good look at Crystal's outfit. The ginger haired girl was wearing a pink jumpsuit adorned with white and purple flowers, Gigi wondered how she hadn't had noticed it until that moment, but she supposed it was because of how 'Crystal' the look was. As usual, Crystal was wearing several pieces of jewellery, mostly necklaces, which showed off how low cut the v neck of the outfit was. Gigi felt her face go hot as she noticed how exposed Crystal's chest was and looked away, trying to focus on one of the many pictures or drawings on Crystal's wall.

"You okay baby?" Crystal asked, sitting down on her bed with her legs crossed

"Yeah, I'm fine!" Gigi answered, her voice cracking as she spoke

"Was it because of what my mom said?" Crystal questioned, furrowing her brows

"No!" Gigi stated, turning to face Crystal again, but avoiding her eyes "I'm fine Crys, it's just... warm in here."

"Then take that coat off, silly!" Crystal chuckled, Gigi smiled upon hearing Crystal's laugh, it was like music to her ears

Gigi chuckled in response while taking off the jacket and folding it over her arm, she sat down on the bed beside Crystal, even though she was still avoiding looking at her, especially her exposed chest. Gigi looked down at her hands, her face still visibly flushed, hoping that Crystal would say something to take her mind off of the many thoughts circling her brain. Gigi couldn't help but think about Crystal's body, even though the jumpsuit was fairly loose fitting, it still showed off her curves in the best ways possible. 

"What're you thinking about?" Crystal asked, placing her hand on one of Gigi's

"N-Nothing." Gigi stuttered. She wished she could just answer honestly, but just saying 'i cant stop thinking about your chest and its making me flustered' didn't sound very appropriate

"Are you feeling uncomfortable? Dysphoric?"

The question made Gigi smile, she appreciated how much Crystal cared for her, how she'd ask her if she was okay when she was visibly uncomfortable. She just wished Crystal wasn't worrying over her when the only thing that was wrong was Gigi's inability to function when she saw too much of Crystal's skin.

"It's not that, don't worry." Gigi answered honestly, looking Crystal in the eye "I just don't want to make _you_ uncomfortable."

"I doubt you will!" Crystal replied with an assuring smile "I'll tell you if you do!"

"Okay," Gigi sighed, turning her body to face Crystal and crossing her legs before basically spitting out the words "I think you look really hot and it's making me flustered."

Crystal just sat in front of her silently, her cheeks and ears quickly becoming a dark shade of pink. Gigi looked down at her hands again, certain that she had made Crystal uncomfortable but not knowing what to do about it.

"Crys," Gigi started, twiddling with her thumbs "I'm sor-"

Before she could even finish her apology, she felt Crystal's lips crashing into hers with the ginger's hands cupping the sides of her face. Gigi sat still in shock for a few seconds before leaning into the kiss, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around Crystal's neck. At least she knew that Crystal wasn't actually uncomfortable by her comment. Crystal's hands quickly moved from Gigi's head to her hips as she pulled the black haired girl onto her lap. Gigi tilted her head to deepen the kiss, shifting her position on Crystal's lap so she was straddling her thighs while the ginger's hands traveled around her body. Gigi pressed her body closer to Crystal's, cupping the back of her head with one hand and moving the other to cup the side of her face.

Gigi pulled her head away to catch her breath, leaning her forehead against Crystal's. Crystal's hands rested on Gigi's waist as the two quickly caught their breaths and put their lips together again, Gigi's mouth opened slightly, which Crystal took as an opportunity to plunge her tongue into Gigi's mouth, causing her to moan into Crystal's mouth.

Crystal switched from kissing Gigi's mouth to her neck, leaving kisses along her neck down to her collarbones. Gigi let out soft moans, her every kiss making her skin feel on fire. She was enjoying every second of it, she was especially enjoying feeling Crystal's hands all over her and she would've gotten to enjoy it more if Elena hadn't knocked on the door, startling both girls and causing them to pull away from each other. 

"We'll be down in a second!" Crystal called, her voice going a higher pitch than usual "Just wait for us in the car!"

"Don't take too long!" Elena responded

"Okay, we should probably go now." Crystal chuckled

"I'll tell Jan that we're on our way."

The car ride to Jan's house was painfully awkward with the amount of teasing the girls got from Elena, so when they eventually got to the blonde's house, the two girls hopped out of Elena's car and said their goodbyes before running over to Jan's front door and knocking.

When Jan opened the door, she greeted the girls loudly and pulled them both into tight hugs before yanking them into the house. Jan was wearing a fairly revealing outfit, which was just a hot pink crop top with a matching skirt, it made Gigi feel like she was wearing too much, but she didn't feel too bad considering Crystal was wearing a jumpsuit and that Rock would most definitely wearing a lot as well.

"You guys can leave your bags in the den!" Jan stated as she closed the front door "We already brought up the drinks from the cellar so we're just setting everything up in the living room!"

"Is everyone else here?" Gigi asked with a raised brow as her and Crystal started removing their shoes

"Just Jackie and Heidi!" Jan answered "Rock is on her way with Aiden and Widow! But I don't know when the girls from the squad are gonna get here."

Gigi nodded as she put her shoes onto a small shoe rack that sat beside the door and made her way down the hall to the den with Crystal while Jan went back to the living room.

Once they threw their bags onto the L shaped couch in the den, the girls met Jan, Jackie and Heidi in the living room. Jackie was wearing a white turtleneck with a matching skirt and her dark hair falling onto her shoulders. Heidi was wearing a black and pale green dress with a black leather jacket and her bright red hair was straightened out of it's curly bob to know rest just above her shoulders. 

"Oh great," Heidi groaned as Crystal and Gigi walked into the room "now I'm fifth-wheeling!"

"Don't worry Heidi," Jackie snickered, "the rest of the lonely girls will be here soon!"

"Fuck you!" Heidi whined playfully

"Who's Aiden and Widow?" Gigi asked, tilting her head

"They're in the art club!" Crystal answered "You definitely would've seen them before!"

Soon enough, the doorbell rang, and Jan immediately skipped out of the room towards the front door, opening it to reveal Rock standing with two girls. Crystal was right, Gigi had seen them before, but she'd never spoken to them. She thought that she recognised Aiden as the quiet kid that sat in the back row of her math class, but she hadn't recognised Widow from anywhere other than the school's hallways. Surprisingly enough, Rock was only wearing a white shirt with a pair of black pants and was somehow one of the least dressed in the room other than Jan. Aiden was wearing a long black turtleneck that she was using as a dress, cinched with a red belt that matched her red gloves. And much like Crystal, Widow was wearing mostly bright colours, she wore a neon coloured jumpsuit that consisted of mainly yellow and pink and the zipper was pulled down to reveal a matching neon yellow bra underneath. When Jan led the three girls into the living room, they all exchanged greetings. 

"Widow! Aiden!" Crystal called, hugging the two girls tightly "It's great to see you guys again!"

"You too Crys!" Aiden replied with a wide smile

"You better be grateful that we agreed to come here," Widow laughed, pulling away from the hug "wouldn't want to leave you with cheerleaders for the night!"

"Hey!" Jan whined, hitting Widow's arm "We're not that bad! Crystal knows!" 

"How do you know I'm not only dating Gigi because she's keeping me hostage?" Crystal joked, causing Gigi to give her a panicked expression "Speaking of Gigi, have you two met her yet?"

"She's in my math class," Aiden answered, before looking at Gigi with an awkward smile "I didn't realise you were gay!"

"Uh, yeah." Gigi nodded nervously

"Don't worry sis," Widow said with an assuring smile, putting her hand on Gigi's shoulder "we won't say anything."

"Aiden's gay too," Crystal shrugged "though what else would you expect from a kid in the art club?"

"Widow's probably the only one there that's _not_ gay!" Aiden laughed, receiving a pair of rolled eyes from the girl she mentioned

The girls continued setting up the living room for when the rest of the cheer squad would arrive until they eventually heard the doorbell ring again. Everyone except Jan felt nervous about the thought of the girls from the cheer team joining them, but they tried not to let their anxieties show. Jan walked back into the room a few seconds later with the rest of the cheer squad: Nicky, Jaida, Dahlia, Rosé, Olivia and Utica. The last three girls were juniors, so Gigi didn't know much about them other than the fact Rosé could sing, Olivia was almost always tired from piano lessons and that Utica had a very unusual personality, she reminded Gigi of Crystal, but if Crystal was religious. There were a lot of fairly religious people in Missouri, but Gigi mainly surrounded herself with people that weren't, so having practice with Utica every week felt odd, but it reminded her of where she was. 

Of course, each girl was extremely well dressed, which was making Gigi wonder if her friends had lied to her when they said her outfit didn't matter. All Nicky wore was a white puffy shirt that started just below her collar bones with a black skirt, but she looked like an absolute supermodel in it, beside her, Jaida wore a slim fitting, sequin tiger print dress, also looking like a model. Dahlia wore a bright orange turtleneck dress with a matching blazer. _God_ Gigi thought _How are they all so stunning?_

Before Gigi even had time to analyse what the other three girls, Nicki was in front of her with a smile, while Crystal -who was beside her- was furrowing her eyebrows nervously.

"Could I take Gigi for a second?" Nicky asked, looking at Crystal

"You don't have to ask me." Crystal muttered, which was a good enough answer for Nicky to take Gigi by her wrist and drag her out of the room to Jan's kitchen while the rest of the girls conversed over the music that was playing from Jan's TV.

Nicky quickly closed the kitchen door once they stepped into the room and gave Gigi a concerned expression.

"I think I'm gonna do it tonight." Nicky started "Apologise to Crystal I mean."

"Are you sure?" Gigi asked, furrowing her brows

"Yes," Nicky answered "I don't want to start off this new year beside her if I haven't at least tried to say sorry."

"Good luck Nicks," Gigi smiled, placing a reassuring hand on Nicky's exposed shoulder "I can't promise that she'll forgive you, but I know for certain that she'll really appreciate this."

Nicky had pulled Gigi into a tight hug faster than Gigi's mind could process "Thanks Gigi"

"No problem," Gigi responded, patting Nicky's back "can we go back into the living room now?" 

"Oh yeah," Nicky replied, pulling away from the hug "let's go, I'll talk to Crystal later."

When the girls went back into the living room, it seemed like no one had even noticed their absence, as all the girls were gathered in their own little groups, talking and dancing to the music. Gigi wanted to approach Crystal and converse with her, Aiden and Widow, but the three seemed so happy that Gigi didn't want to intrude, especially since she didn't know the two other girls that well, so she resulted and walking with Nicky over to Jaida and Dahlia.

"Happy early New Year girl!" Jaida greeted Gigi, pulling her into a tight hug "You look stunning!"

"Coming from you?" Gigi asked with a wide smile "Thank you! Happy early New Year to you too! You too Dahlia!"

"Thanks girl!" Dahlia smiled "So tell me, how much shittier is Missouri winter to LA?"

"It's actually been better!" Gigi answered, picking up a cup from a table that stood beside Dahlia and pouring herself some vodka and cranberry juice "I miss hanging out at the pool on New Years, but I love that it actually snows here!"

"Ugh, I'd kill to be at a pool!" Dahlia groaned "When it gets warmer we need to have a pool party! I think Liv has a pool!"

"Sounds like a plan!" Gigi chuckled, and the two clinked their cups

Throughout the night, Gigi was going between groups of people, hoping that Crystal would approach her at one point. It felt weird not talking to Crystal when she was in the same room as her, but she knew that Crystal had invited Aiden and Widow for a reason, so she'd have people to talk to while Gigi talked to members of the cheer squad. Gigi was talking to Utica and Olivia at that point, who were almost joined at the hip as the were two of the only three juniors in a room full of seniors.

"I absolutely love this song!" Utica announced as Bottoms Up by Trey Songz started playing, her lisp prominent in her words. Since Gigi was now standing in front of the two, she was able to properly analyse what they were wearing and they both wore absolutely stunning outfits. Utica was dressed in a way that Gigi could only say reminded her of a poodle, but in the best way possible, her curly blonde hair separated into two ponytails while she was dressed in very French fashion.

"We should dance!" Olivia suggested, showing off one of the most perfect smiles Gigi had ever seen. She was wearing a floral jacket with matching shorts and gloves, but still looked practically elegant, which made Gigi fairly self conscious about the outfit that she felt perfect in just hours prior.

"I'm good, you guys can though!" Gigi replied, turning away from the girls.

Gigi walked towards the drink table and poured herself another drink, not entirely sure of what to do until she heard Crystal let out an excited squeal, so she turned to face the ginger, who was cheering for Widow and Jackie, who were singing along to the part of the song right before Nicki Minaj starts rapping. Gigi hurriedly walked over to the girls, wanting to know if they were actually going to rap in front of everyone.

"Jackie and Widow know all the words to this!" Crystal stated as Gigi approached

"You're kidding?" Gigi laughed "Jackie knows the words?"

"Don't underestimate that girl!" Aiden commented "Just wait!"

As soon as Nicki Minaj's verse started, Jackie and Widow started rapping to each other, leaving Gigi absolutely flabbergasted. She could only assume Jackie was drunk by how much she was pointing and dancing as she rapped each word flawlessly and Widow seemed completely in her element. As soon as Jan heard the lyrics start, she ran over to the girls and started cheering for Jackie, much louder than usual.

Everyone in the room eventually started watching Jackie and Widow as they rapped to each other while Jan, Crystal, Aiden and Gigi cheered and wooed them on. It wasn't until near the end of Nicki's verse that Rock, Heidi and even Rosé started joining in on the cheering from the other end of the room.

When it got to the last part of the verse, the cheering girls went quiet up until they heard Jackie and Widow say the lines "Say hi to Mary, Mary and Joseph. Now bottoms up and double my dosage!" before the cheered again. Jackie and Widow immediately burst into fits of laughter once they stopped rapping and didn't even realise that Jaida, Nicky and Dahlia had approached them.

"Jackie you absolute legend!" Jaida cheered with a wide smile "You too Widow! But it was a lot more surprising coming from Jackie!"

"Didn't know Ms. Cox of the student council could rap!" Dahlia laughed "How did you even do that?!"

"Oh girl this isn't even it!" Widow laughed, wrapping her arm around Jackie's shoulder "This bitch probably knows every Nicki song out there!"

"Her and me both!" Nicky stated

While Jackie and Widow spoke with Jaida and Dahlia, Nicky approached Crystal, Gigi and Jan who were just a few feet away and tapped Crystal's shoulder.

"Hey Crystal," Nicky started "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Why?" Jan asked, raising a suspicious brow at Nicky

"I just need to talk to her Jan." Nicky answered before looking back at Crystal with an assuring smile "Please?"

"Sure." Crystal replied nervously, biting her lip 

Nicky pointed her head in the direction of the kitchen door she took Gigi through earlier that night and started walking, waiting for Crystal to follow her. Crystal looked at Gigi with an anxious expression, to which Gigi just smiled at her in response. When the ginger walked away to follow Nicky, Jan raised her brow at Gigi, who just shrugged in response. 

Crystal came back a few minutes later with a pleased smile on her face, which confused Jan even more but pleased Gigi.

"Nicky apologised to me!" Crystal announced to the two "She explained why she did everything, I'm not gonna say why she did it, but I'm glad she told me!"

"That's great Crys!" Gigi replied, pulling Crystal into a hug "I'm really happy for you!" 

"Me too!" Crystal giggled

There were only a few minutes left until the countdown to end the year and all the girls were excitedly talking in the room, Jan had turned off the music on the TV and put on the live countdown that was being broadcasted and everyone was standing around the room talking amongst themselves, telling each other everything they hoped for in the new year.

"We doing Countdown Kisses this year y'all?" Rosé asked loudly, directed at everyone in the room, the girls all looked around at each other, not sure of who should answer

"Fuck it, we gotta spruce it up a bit this New Years!" Jaida answered, looking at Nicky "Right?"

"Have fun kissing no one Dahli!" Nicky laughed "I'm taking Jaida!"

"Oh fuck you!" Dahlia laughed back "Someone's gotta kiss me! Gigi? Will you?" 

"Sorry Dahlia," Gigi giggled, linking her arm with Crystal's "Crys called dibs!"

Nicky raised a brow at Gigi from the other end of the room and mouthed the words 'Are you two...?' while doing a gesture with her hand that Gigi could only assume meant 'dating'. Gigi glanced down at Crystal to see that the ginger's cheeks were slightly red with embarrassment, so Gigi wasn't entirely sure how to answer until Crystal looked back at her to see if she was going to give Nicky an answer. All Gigi did was mouth 'can I?' to Crystal to see if she should say anything and when Crystal nodded, she looked back at Nicky and gave her a simple nod, who gave her a wink back in response. 

Dahlia ended up getting stuck with Rosé as her countdown kiss, as Utica and Olivia weren't interested in the idea and the rest of the girls had quickly found their pairings. Dahlia did not want to kiss a junior and she was very vocal about that, even telling Rosé that she refused to kiss her anywhere other than her cheek. 

Gigi was excited to be able to kiss Crystal when the clock struck twelve, she never thought she'd be grateful to have a bunch of people kissing in the same room as her, but she was grateful for any excuse to kiss her girlfriend in front of people without anyone -other than Nicki- finding out that they were dating.

When it finally got down to 20 seconds, the room was buzzing with every girl's excitement. They all stood around the TV, watching intently as they waited for the countdown from 10 to start.

Gigi gripped onto Crystal's hand when the number finally hit 10, and everyone started to chant the seconds together. They all watched the TV until the number got to 5.

"Five!"

Gigi turned to Crystal, her heart fluttering in her chest as she looked into her eyes

"Four!"

Gigi felt her breathing start to shake with nerves, but she couldn't stop smiling

"Three!"

Gigi placed her hand on Crystal's cheek, her smile growing wider

"Two!"

Gigi leaned in until her nose was touching Crystal's, her stomach turning to knots

"One!"

Gigi finally closed the gap between them, her body feeling like all the fireworks that were exploding outside were going off in her. The two pulled away sooner than they wanted to, but they new they wouldn't have been able to kiss for longer without it being suspicious.

"Happy New Year guys!" Jan squealed, her arms around Jackie's neck

"Happy New Year!" Gigi responded excitedly

"May this year suck less than the last!" Nicky laughed

All the guests except Gigi, Crystal, Jackie, Rock and Heidi left Jan's house around twenty minutes later, getting driven home by Utica who hadn't drank any alcohol that night and was able to drive them all home.

The group of girls all stumbled downstairs to the den once the guests had left, all of them taking turns in the bathroom to wash off their makeup and get changed into their pajamas. Once they were all ready for bed, they all went to their usual sleepover places: Rock and Heidi on the couch, Jan and Jackie on one mattress and Crystal and Gigi on another mattress. The girls were all fairly tired, but still slightly buzzed from the alcohol they drank that night, so they put on a movie on the den's TV and watched as much of it as they could before they'd all fall asleep.

When everyone else was asleep, Gigi was still awake, hoping the sounds of the movie would just become white noise and bore her to sleep. Crystal's arms were wrapped around her waist and she was cuddling into her chest, Gigi thought Crystal was almost more adorable sleeping than awake, as she'd always have the most peaceful smile on her face while she slept.

Gigi stroked Crystal's hair while she listened to her snore, hoping that she'd relax herself to sleep, but unfortunately, she accidentally ended up waking up Crystal.

"Can't sleep?" Crystal grumbled, looking up at Gigi with half lidded eyes

"No, sorry for waking you baby." Gigi whispered with a frown "Try go back to sleep."

"Not until I get to kiss you again," Crystal giggled

Gigi rolled her eyes and leaned in to kiss Crystal, but the ginger stopped her before she could close the space between them, making Gigi confused.

"Five, four," Crystal started, smiling at Gigi as she raised her hand to cup Gigi's cheek "three, two, one."

Once Crystal finished whispering her countdown, she closed the gap between her and Gigi, kissing her softly.

"Happy New Year Geeg." Crystal hummed as she pulled away from Gigi

"Happy New Year Crys."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!! It was really fun to write!! 
> 
> Unfortunately I don't know how often I'm gonna be able to post in February as that month marks the one year anniversary of my friend's death and it's honestly taking a toll on me. Hopefully I'll be able to keep updating once a week but if not then please understand that it's a rough month for me <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you all keep telling me not to apologise for late updates, but that doesn't stop me from being sorry!!!   
> It's been three weeks since I've updated this fic, but I promise I'm still writing it! 
> 
> Dealing with the anniversary of my friend's death has been difficult, but I'm getting through it and I finally have the motivation to write again after falling into a slump for a while.
> 
> Anyways, I really hope you enjoy this chapter! Hopefully the length of it makes up for the lack of updates!!

When the winter break finally ended, Gigi definitely underestimated how stressful school was going to be. Teachers were putting more pressure on students to study for exams, the cheer team had to practice almost every day after school instead of just Wednesdays and Fridays because of the big game coming up and she was getting so much homework that she barely had any free time anymore. The only times she got to hang out with Crystal were in art class and at lunch (if Jaida let the team have lunch instead of practicing) and that just made everything more stressful for Gigi.

All Gigi could do was work and practice, all day every day. The only times she got to socialise with any of her peers that weren't her teammates were during class and she wanted nothing more than to get the big game over with so her schedule wouldn't be as stressful.

The first time Gigi had felt relieved to do work since school had started again was when Jan had asked if she wanted to go to her house after school one day after cheer practice. Three days before the game. Gigi instantly agreed, it was always easier for her to get her work done if she was in a relaxing environment, and being with at least one of her friends was definitely a relaxing environment. 

Gigi's entire body ached as she left the locker room with Jan that day, so she couldn't wait to get to Jan's house and just relax in the blonde's room while the two did their homework together.

"Our finals aren't for like four months!" Jan groaned, having to take some of her books from her backpack and carry them in her hands as her bag was becoming too heavy "Why are we getting so much homework?"

"Tell me about it!" Gigi replied "The only things I can do are practice and homework at this point!"

"Same!" Jan stated

When they got to the carpark, the two girls noticed their friends standing at Jan's minivan, which was a surprise to the two as Crystal had been driving the others home since the winter break ended. Jan and Gigi obviously looked very confused as Jackie decided to clear things up for them.

"We know you guys have been really busy," The Persian started, giving Jan a quick hug before taking the books out of her hands "so we thought we'd let you relax today! We'll help you get your work done as soon as possible, so then you can have the rest of the day to chill out!"

"You're absolute life savers!" Gigi sighed, pulling Jackie into a tight hug

When the group of girls got to Jan's house, they quickly went upstairs to get their work over with. Jackie, Crystal, Heidi and Rock had gotten most of their own work done in the hour that they were waiting for Jan and Gigi to finish cheer practice, so they focused more on getting the two girl's work finished before their own.

Jackie insisted that Jan would work better if she sat at her desk instead of her bed like the blonde had initially wanted to, but after several minutes of complaining, the Persian had finally convinced her girlfriend to work at her desk while Crystal and Gigi worked on Jan's bed and Heidi and Rock sat on the floor.

"Crys, can you do my Spanish homework for me?" Gigi asked, giving Crystal her best attempt at puppy dog eyes "Please?"

"Only if I can get paid in kisses." Crystal giggled

"I'd kiss you anyway," Gigi giggled back, rolling her eyes "but I don't pay upfront! So you're doing my work first!"

"Fine!" Crystal dramatically huffed, extending the word as long as possible

"Thank you baby" Gigi said with a sing-song tone, basically scribbling the answers to the English work she had in her hands

It took about an hour and a half, but Gigi and Jan managed to get all of their work done with the help of their friends and they couldn't have been more grateful to have had them with them. Once they were all done their homework, they sat around Jan's room and talked about everything and nothing. Gigi felt pure bliss at that moment, taking advantage of the moment and appreciating the fact that she could just relax with her friends and girlfriend.

As promised, Gigi definitely paid Crystal in kisses, so many in fact that it if someone counted it probably could've set a record. The rest of their friends didn't say much about it other than an occasional 'get a room!' or 'ew', but they didn't really care. Their friends knew that they hadn't spent much time together since New Years, hell, Jackie and Jan were on the same boat, though they were definitely a lot more private when it came to displaying affection, only sharing small kisses around the others.

"So, about the game!" Jan started, clapping her hands together and interrupting Gigi and Crystal from their little kissing session "Y'all are staying here afterwards, right?"

"Yeah, of course!" Crystal answered with a beaming smile

"You're coming to the game?" Gigi asked, titling her head

"Why wouldn't we be?" Jackie inquired "We always go to games to support the team!"

"Just cause we don't care about football doesn't mean we don't care about you guys!" Heidi stated, causing an excited smile to form on Gigi's face

"Plus, why would me and Jackie pass up the chance to see our girlfriends dance around in cute uniforms?" Crystal chuckled, causing the group to laugh while Jackie's face went a bright red

"Jacks, if you want a show you can just ask!" Jan teased, poking her girlfriend's nose

"Okay I've had enough of this bullying!" Jackie joked, covering her bright red face with her hands

When Friday -the day of the big game- arrived, Gigi was insanely nervous. Her stomach twisted and turned the entire day during her classes, she appreciated the amount of encouragement and support she received from her peers throughout the day, but it ironically just made her anxiety worsen. Gigi had gone to multiple games back in LA to support Symone and Rosy, but she had never been in one herself. The anxiety that came from the thought of performing in front of crowds of people was a lot for her to handle, but she knew it'd all be worth it once the game was over. Symone and Rosy had always told her how amazing it felt to be the center of attention during each game (even just for a few minutes) and how having the crowds cheer and applaud you was the best feeling in the world, so Gigi trusted this and tried to push away her fears of failure and instead tried to use her anxieties as a way to push herself to do better in her school work throughout the day.

Key word: Tried

In reality, Gigi was struggling to concentrate for most of the day as her classes went on. She was in her head most of the time, worrying about her performance that was hours away. What if she messed up? What if she got hurt? What if, what if, what if. 

During English, her panic must have been noticeable, as Jackie leaned in to ask if she was doing okay. Gigi gave the girl a reassuring smile and nodded, letting her know not to worry and that she was just anxious about her first game. Jackie assured Gigi that she'd do great and that the rest of the girls would be there to support her. Gigi felt just a tad bit more at ease with the thought of her friends being there to cheer the squad on from the bleachers and just hoped that everything would go according to plan.

When the last class of the day, Art, ended, Gigi walked with Crystal and Rock to meet Jan at the locker rooms, ready for their last practice. Crystal gave her a quick peck on the lips and hurried off to the car park with Rock, the two waving their goodbyes as they walked, saying they'd see them at the game. Then Gigi's phone started to ring in her pocket. She took out her phone to see who was calling her, her stomach dropped when she saw the name. 'Mom <3' 

Fuck. Gigi had completely forgotten the appointment she had that day, the appointment she couldn't miss, the appointment she had to miss her final practice for. The appointment with the gender therapist.

"You good gorge?" Jan asked, standing at the door of the locker room

"I have to go," Gigi answered nervously "I'm so sorry, please tell Jaida for me."

"Are you okay?"

"I have that appointment today." Gigi answered "I completely forgot until now."

"Oh shit! Yeah!" Jan replied with a smile, which faded quickly when she noticed Gigi's nervousness "What will I tell Jaida?"

"Just say I had a family emergency, please." Gigi answered, Jan nodded, so Gigi gave her mom a quick text before giving Jan a quick hug "I need to leave, but I'll be there for the game. Promise."

"Good luck Gigi"

Gigi did all but sprint out of the school, accidentally bumping into a few random students on her way. When she pushed her way out of the front doors, she looked around for her Kristi's car, which she found rather quickly and hopped inside.

"Ready to go?" Kristi asked, turning the keys to start the car

"Yep!" Gigi answered, putting on her seat belt "Let's go!"

The drive felt agonisingly long, but it was only about thirty five minutes. Gigi hadn't been that far out of the town before, it felt weird, she traveled a lot back in California, but she hadn't done much of that in Missouri until that moment. She anxiously fiddled with her clothes as they drove closer to their destination, occasionally checking her phone to see if Jaida had responded to the overly long apology message that she had sent. Thankfully, about twenty minutes into the drive, Jaida responded with a simple 'dont worry girl, hope ur ok' which helped Gigi feel more at ease.

Gigi almost couldn't believe that she was on her way to finally see a gender therapist. After years of being out of the closet, she never expected to actually get professional help with the support from both of her parents, especially her dad, but she was actually getting it and the feelings of excitement and nervousness mixed around in her stomach.

When the car finally stopped, Gigi looked out the window to see a small, secluded building with a sign above the door that read "Kressley Councilling". She looked at her mom nervously, receiving an assuring squeeze on the knee from her.

"Do you want me to walk to the door with you?" Kristi asked

"No, it's fine." Gigi answered with a small smile "Thanks mom, for this."

"No problem Gigi," Kristi smiled "You deserve it. Now go in there before you're late and call me when you're done so I can pick you up."

Gigi nodded and gave her mom a tight hug before nervously leaving the car and approaching the door to the building. She took a deep breath as she raised her fist to the door and exhaled as she gently knocked. Butterflies and moths attacked the inside of her stomach as she waited for the door to open and she was tempted to just turn back to her mom to ask her to stay with her but when she turned her head, the car was gone. She gulped as she heard footsteps approaching the door from the other end and took another deep breath as the door opened.

"Hello!" A voice greeted from the now opened door, the owner of the voice was a blonde middle aged man, most likely in his late forties or early fifties. He wore a light grey turtleneck and some navy pants, Gigi liked his taste in clothes already

"Hi!" Gigi greeted back, her voice nervously squeaking "Are you Mr. Kressley?"

"You can just call me Carson," The man stated with a gleeful smile, extending his hand for Gigi to shake "you must be Gigi?"

"Yeah, that's me." Gigi nodded, shaking his hand

"Well come on in Gigi!" Carson replied, opening the door for her to step in "Make yourself at home!"

When Gigi stepped inside, she noticed another door that was open beside Carson which revealed a small room with two leather seats and a desk, which she assumed would be the room where their session would take place. Carson asked her if she'd like anything to drink, she said no, so Carson nodded and showed her into the room, closing the door behind them.

Gigi sat down on the seat that faced away from the door and started to nervously wring her hands as Carson sat down across from her.

"How are you doing today Gigi?" Carson asked, picking up a small notebook from the desk beside him

"Nervous." Gigi answered bluntly, causing Carson to chuckle

"Because of this appointment?"

"Yes and no."

"Can you explain?"

"I've been waiting for this day for a long time," Gigi stated "but I almost missed it and I feel bad about it."

"Well you're here just in time, so no need to worry!"

"Yeah, I guess."

"So Gigi, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" Carson asked, Gigi shook her head "What do you want to gain from this appointment?"

"I want to go further with my transition," Gigi stated "I'm okay with where I am now, but I wish I was further along."

"Where do you want to be in your transition right now?" Carson questioned, writing in his notebook

"I want to feel comfortable in my body." Gigi answered

"What would make that happen?"

"Well, back in my old home, my friends and I looked into the aspects of a medical transition," Gigi replied, looking down at her hands "like hormones and stuff, and the more I looked into it, the more I realised that I needed it."

Carson nodded as he wrote in his notebook, taking in everything Gigi was saying "Can you tell me about your childhood?" 

"Yeah," Gigi nodded "so, I was always a really feminine kid. I'd always want to wear dresses to school and be feminine. There's this one thing my mom told me when I came out, it was about when I was three, I didn't even remember it because I was so young, but apparently I asked her why I wasn't born a girl. She was all confused, but I was saying that God should've made me a girl and not a boy. She was so shocked, but she didn't say anything about it, she just dismissed it until I came out a few years ago. I was always uncomfortable being called a boy and by my dead name, but I didn't know why. At one point I just thought I was a feminine gay boy, but after trying to date boys I knew that wasn't right. I think I was fifteen or sixteen when I finally found out what being trans was and everything just kinda made sense. I finally had a label that worked for me and a label to describe the discomfort I had been feeling, it was clarity to me."

"So you've felt this way all your life?" Carson asked, to which Gigi hummed as a yes 

Gigi felt very comfortable in his presence. She was glad her parents had chosen him for her to talk to as he was easy to converse with, unlike a lot of other men Gigi had spoken to in her life.

After a while of talking, Carson placed his notebook on his lap and looked at Gigi with his kind smile "We're just at the end of the session now." He stated "After everything you've told me, it's safe to say that you have a diagnoseable case of gender dysphoria."

"Okay" Gigi muttered, nodding

"You've stated that you want to begin a medical transition," Carson started "so, if you want, I can refer you to a clinic not too far from here. There, they will discuss the process of medically transitioning with you and you can see if that's the right fit for you. And since you're eighteen, you won't need your parents to fill out any consent forms, you'll need to do that yourself." 

Those words caused an overwhelming sense of joy to fill Gigi's body, they were everything she needed to hear. She almost couldn't believe it.

"Thank you!" Gigi replied almost too excitedly, a wide smile on her face "Thank you so much!"

"No need to thank me Gigi," The blonde chuckled, opening his notebook again "I'll give you a call to let you know when your next appointment is."

"Thank you again!" Gigi repeated, standing up from her seat "Have a nice day!"

"You too!"

When Gigi left the building, her cheeks were sore from how much she was smiling. She took out her phone to call her mom, to let her know to pick her up, but first she needed to text her friends.

**thegigigoode:** i just got the best news ever !

 **heidi_c:** what is it sis

 **thegigigoode:** ill tell you all @ jans later <3

 **sock.m.rakura:** damn leavin us in suspense smh

Half an hour past when her mom finally picked her up and Gigi's smile still hadn't faded, even though she was waiting for thirty minutes. Gigi excitedly hugged her mom and caught her up on the news she had received, making Kristi let out an excited squeal as she congratulated her daughter. They two decided to go get a coffee to celebrate, knowing they still had time before they had to go back home.

Kristi drove around the fairly busy town they were in for a while until they found a café, it was a lot bigger than the cafés in the town they lived in, to be honest, everything seemed bigger in that town than the one they currently lived in. Kristi parked the car in the closest parking area to the café she could find, and the two left the car to walk the rest of the very short way. 

When Gigi pushed open the café doors, she was greeted with the welcoming smell of coffee and pastries. Kristi told her to go find a table for them, so she did just that while the older woman went to the counter. Gigi chose a table beside a window so she could watch the streets while she waited for her mom, it wasn't very exciting though, the most exciting thing to happen was a dog getting off its leash and running down the street. When her mom came back, she handed Gigi an iced coffee and smiled at her as she sat down.

The two drank their coffees in peace for a while, before Gigi noticed the time. She knew that she wouldn't be late to the game if they waited a few more minutes to leave, but she didn't like the possibility of it happening, so she told her mom and the two got up to leave.

Gigi forgot how agonisingly long the drive felt, but remembered after five minutes. She resulted in blasting a Spotify playlist that Crystal had sent her a while back, full of songs from Madonna, Dolly Parton, The Beatles and a few of Crystal's favourite One Direction songs that she couldn't help but add even if Gigi wasn't the biggest fan of the group. The music made the ride feel shorter to Gigi as her and Kristi sang along to songs together.

It took forty minutes to get home because of traffic, but as soon as Kristi parked her car in the driveway Gigi was already sprinting inside the house to get ready for the game, which was going to start in an hour. Luckily enough, her dad was home, so she was able to just run inside and up the stairs to the bathroom to get a shower. It usually didn't take her too long to get ready, but today she felt like she had to speed through everything just so there wasn't a single chance of her being late to her first game. She knew she wasn't the most important person in the team, but she knew she couldn't let her teammates down by being late or not going. The team had planned on meeting in the locker rooms before the game began, just to talk to each other before having to watch the football game and anxiously wait for the time to perform their routine, so Gigi knew that the quicker she got ready the better.

When she got out of the shower, she hurriedly walked to her room to change into her uniform and do her hair and makeup. Getting into the clothes was quick, so was tying her hair into a high ponytail, so she let herself take her time on her makeup, but tried not to overdo it too much.

She finally settled on some simple makeup, a nude lip with some blush, eyeliner and purple eyeshadow. When she was done, she looked at the time on her phone and was relieved to see that she had enough time, so she texted Jan to let her know that she was on her way to the school and headed downstairs with her backpack to ask her mom to drive her to the school.

The school's car park was packed with parents and students both from Branson High and the school that they were competing against -which Gigi had completely forgotten the name of the second she heard it several weeks ago- so her mom decided not to park at the school and just let Gigi hop out of her car at car park's entrance, making Gigi wish that she brought a jacket with her as the winter air was freezing, but soon enough the adrenaline from the thought of the game started to warm her up as she walked past several families until she got to the school's entrance, where Jan was waiting with Jackie, Heidi, Rock and Crystal.

"Hey guys!" Gigi greeted, jogging up to the group and hugging Crystal tightly and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek when she knew no one other than their friends were looking

"I'm so glad you made it!" Jan announced, basically pouncing at Gigi to hug her "I was so scared you'd be late!"

"Oh trust me, so was I!" Gigi laughed, hugging the blonde back "I wouldn't let that happen though!"

"Jaida wants to meet us in the locker room," Jan stated as she pulled away "we should get going!"

"We'll make sure to sit close enough to the front!" Crystal assured, wrapping her arm around Gigi's waist and shooting a wink in her direction "Don't wanna miss the show!"

"Oh my God!" Gigi groaned jokingly, covering her face with her hands "Shut up Crys!"

"Make m-

"Okay okay, save that for later!" Jan interrupted, hitting Crystal's arm "We need to go!"

"Damn, can't flirt with my girlfriend in peace!" Crystal whined

"Sorry baby," Gigi giggled, planting a quick kiss behind the red head's ear before being pulled by Jan "you'll just have to wait til after the game!"

"We'll get going to the bleachers then!" Jackie stated "We'll see you later!"

"Bye!" Jan and Gigi said in unison as the blonde dragged Gigi into the school and to the locker rooms

When they opened the locker room doors, they were greeted by their ecstatic teammates, which made Gigi feel a sense of belonging she hadn't felt from the team before.

"Gee! You're here!" Jaida exclaimed, pulling her into a hug "You doing okay?"

"Yeah! I'm great!" Gigi answered, hugging back "Everything's good!"

"Thank goodness!" Nicky sighed, approaching them "We were all really worried about you Geeg."

"Really?" Gigi asked

"Of course we were!" Nicky answered

"We didn't know if you'd make it tonight," Dahlia added "glad you did though!"

The group all talked for the next fifteen minutes about how excited they were for the game, despite most of them not even caring about football. Gigi noticed how nervous the juniors (Utica specifically) were to perform, but they still excitedly talked amongst the rest of the group. And after a while, Jaida started to speak loudly so everyone could hear her.

"Okay girls!" She started, standing in the center of the room, all eyes on her "The game is gonna start soon, so we need to get out there, do our thing and show those bitches in Ozark-High who the winning team is!"

The rest of the girls, even Gigi, started to cheer and whoop at Jaida's words, before putting their hands together and shouting "Branson!" as they lifted their hands after counting to three.

The group then left the locker room, the rush of adrenaline running through them all as they made their way to the field and towards their bench at the front of the bleachers. The cold wasn't bothering any of them anymore, all they needed was the excitement.

"We're gonna be so good!" Rosé said, well, sang- as she sang most of the sentences that came out of her mouth

"The other team have nothing on us!" Jan agreed, grabbing Rosé's hands and bouncing as she spoke

"Save all that energy for the routine Janice!" Nicky joked, earning a playful punch on the arm from Jan, who started to warm up to the French girl ever since the New Year's party

When they got to their designated bench, Gigi sat in between Jan and Nicky, looking around to see if she could find their friends. Her brows furrowed when she was nudged in the ribs by Jan, but her face relaxed again when she saw Jan pointing in the direction of their friends and girlfriends on the bleachers across the field. They were on the third row, sitting between a few other students and families and excitedly waving at the two cheerleaders. The two girls waved back, only to see that the girls were now holding up handmade paper signs that Crystal and Rock most likely made, saying 'Go Branson!' and 'Branson FTW!' and other signs of the sort. Gigi chuckled when she read what was written, she thought it was cute how the girls were being so supportive of the team despite not even liking the main point of the game, football.

The loud crowd of over one hundred people went silent as the principal of Branson, Mr. Charles, walked into the center of the field and started speaking through a microphone.

"Good evening all!" He greeted, looking around at the many people surrounding him "Tonight is finally the big night we've all been waiting for! For the whole school year, schools all across the state have been competing for the Missouri Football Championship, and as you know, tonight is the semi final! The teams from Branson and Ozark High have been working extremely hard to get here and whoever wins will be going to Kansas for the final! So everyone, have fun, enjoy yourselves and be respectful to both teams! And now, to start off the game, we'll have the cheerleading teams from both schools perform their routines for you! So to start us off, please welcome Ozark High!"

The once silent crowd started to cheer as the girls from Ozark High's team jogged onto the field to perform their routine. Gigi thought she'd feel nervous seeing them, but instead she felt driven to do better than them. They were good, but Branson High was better and they were going to prove it.

The girls from Ozark shot dirty looks towards Gigi and the rest of her team, receiving rolled eyes as a response.

"We don't need to give 'em dirty looks back y'all," Jaida stated towards the team "we know we're better than them, so all we need to do is do what we do best and cheer like our lives depend on it!"

When the Ozark team's routine ended, the crowd clapped and cheered, but Gigi knew very well that her team was going to blow their socks right off. They waited a few seconds, before getting off the bench and walking to the center of the field. Gigi could hear Crystal and Rock cheering already from the bleachers, which made her giggle, but she wasn't going to lose concentration. 

All the girls got into their positions and when the music finally started, they knew exactly what to do. The entire group executed every single stunt they had prepared, even the ones Gigi was terrified of. As Gigi was one of the tallest and strongest, she was a base, so she was petrified of dropping Nicky, her flyer, during the cupie or cradle catch they had practiced, but felt overwhelmingly confident once she dead-manned and dismounted without any problems.

The crowd was absolutely loving it, even more than Ozark's team, so when the squad did a reel off to show off their synchronization, Gigi knew the crowd was going to go insane. Gigi and Utica both did back handsprings at the same time -which Gigi knew Crystal was going to go wild over- and ran towards their flyers, Nicky and Jan, so they could finish off with their one armed liberties. 

Once the team finished, the crowd was silent for only a few short seconds before erupting into loud claps and cheers from the crowd, giving the team all the confidence they needed. Gigi felt on top of the world, like absolutely nothing could stop her, when she dismounted Nicky again, all of the girls hugged tightly as the crowd cheered for them before scurrying back to their bench so the football game could start. When she looked over at the Ozark squad, she saw stunned faces, which only added to her confidence.

"I can't believe we just did that!" Jan squealed, linking arms with Gigi "We were so good!"

"I told y'all we would be!" Jaida agreed, giving her teammates a wide smile

"Thank Goodness Gigi was here!" Utica laughed "I didn't wanna have to sit out of my first game!"

"I wouldn't have missed this for the world!"

Gigi didn't realise how much she disliked football until she had to sit and watch it for so long, but she was still watching intently, rooting for her school's team like any cheerleader would. She didn't even realise how she didn't know any of the football team until that moment, she recognised a few faces, but just didn't bother learning names, it made her feel a bit guilty, but she decided that she'd save the guilt for a different time, because it didn't matter at that moment, what mattered was that she root for the team.

It felt like forever, but the game was almost coming to an end, so far, it was a tie, and there was only one more goal needed for one of the teams to win. It was intense, despite the amount of people, it was almost silent.

Both teams went into huddles, so Gigi looked over to where Crystal, Jackie, Rock and Heidi were sitting and noticed the group with their eyes glued to the game, it made her smile, even though they said they didn't like football, they were still watching.

The coach of the football team approached the center of the field, ball in hand and placed it on the grass, causing the teams to separate from their huddles and form their positions opposite each other. The coach backed away from them, towards the side of the field where he had emerged from and waited several seconds before blowing his whistle to continue the game. The players ran towards the center for the ball, but someone from Ozark got it first, he hiked the ball to a guy behind him, who then started running and trying to hand it off to another member of his team, but it was immediately intercepted by a member of Branson High, who began running towards the other end of the field, followed by several other players.

As the countdown was getting lower and lower, Gigi and Jan started holding onto each other, watching the teams play against each other. The guy from Branson who was running up the field was tackled by several people from the other team, but somehow managed to throw the ball towards one of his teammates just in time. The player -who's jersey said Michaels- sprinted towards the end of the field, leaving everyone at the edge of their seats until he finally got to his goal and scored the finishing touch down of the game, making Branson high the winners by just one point.

Most of the crowd stood up and erupted into cheers, screams, whoops and hollers. The cheer team clapped and shouted congratulating words as the footballs teams shook hands and thank each other for a good game, when they left the field, the whole crowd was still loud, the people from Ozark weren't the happiest about their loss, but were respectful nonetheless and even congratulated the Branson team for their win.

Mr. Charles spoke to the crowd once again when the football teams had left, thanking everyone for coming and wishing everyone a good night and safe travels home, once he was done, everyone began to leave.

"We did amazing tonight girls!" Jaida announced, looking at the squad "I'll see y'all on Monday!" 

"We couldn't have done it without you!" Nicky stated, wrapping her arm around Jaida's waist

The squad all said their good nights to each other, giving each other goodbye hugs and waving as they departed. Jaida, Nicky, Jan and Gigi stayed together at the bench though, and continued to talk until the others found them.

"Hey, so uh... we wanted to tell you something." Nicky stated, looking at Jan nervously

"Oh?" Jan responded, raising a brow "What is it?"

"Well," Jaida started, taking hold of Nicky's hand "Nicky and I are dating."

"Wait what?" Jan asked, her jaw basically on the floor "I didn't even know that either of you were gay!" 

"Well we are," Nicky chuckled, leaning her head on Jaida's shoulder "we have been for a while now, but we didn't want to say anything."

"Thank God!" Jan sighed, making Jaida and Nicky both raise their brows "I didn't want to say anything for ages now, but me too!"

"Damn, is everyone in our team gay?" Jaida joked "First us, then Gigi, then you too?"

"You told them?" Jan questioned, looking at Gigi

"It's a funny story actually!" Nicky laughed "Gigi can tell you about it later!"

"So they know about you and Crystal?"

"You and Crystal?!" Jaida gasped

"What about me and Gigi?" Crystal asked with furrowed brows, approaching the group with the rest of their friends

"Yknow what, it makes sense!" Jaida chuckled, looking between Crystal and Gigi "You two seem like an oddly perfect match!"

"Oh trust me! They are!" Jan stated "Not even close to me and Jackie though!"

"Jan!" Jackie scolded with wide eyes

"Don't worry babe! They're gay too!" Jan assured, making Jaida and Nicky laugh

"Guess everyone's being outed by Jan today." Heidi joked, receiving a glare from Jan

"Shut up!" Jan whined "That's not what's happening!"

When the group got to Jan's house, they decided to stay in the blonde's bedroom for a change. They all fit on the queen sized bed, eating snacks supplied by Alexis while they sat in a circle and talked about absolutely everything and nothing. Gigi told the girls the story of how she found out Jaida and Nicky were dating, to which the girls applauded her for being able to keep a secret for so long, even from them. Crystal joked about how boring it had been with the two cheerleaders at practice all the time and how she almost went mad. And eventually, they talked so much until they got too tired to think, so they all squeezed beside each other on the bed so they could sleep. 

Gigi couldn't sleep though, she wasn't entirely sure why, it was like she was too tired to actually sleep. Surprisingly enough, Crystal, who was always first to fall asleep, was also awake, which Gigi could only tell by the lack of snoring.

"Geeg?" Crystal whispered, receiving a quiet hum from Gigi "Do you wanna go outside?"

Gigi responded with a quiet 'sure' before quietly sliding out of the bed followed by Crystal, who took the blanket off of Jan's couch and walked with Gigi out of the room and down the stairs towards the kitchen, where the back door was located. Crystal quietly unlocked the door and slid it open, stepping onto the cold wooden porch and turning on the outdoor light. Gigi shivered under the cold air and felt herself waking up a bit despite how heavy her eyes felt, she slid the door closed behind her and followed Crystal to the porch swing with cushion seats and sat down beside the ginger who wrapped the blanket around their shoulders.

"It's been a while since it was just the two of us," Gigi whispered, taking Crystal's hand and intertwining their fingers "I missed it."

"It hasn't been that long," Crystal chuckled, smiling at Gigi "but I missed it too, that's why I asked to come outside."

"I figured," Gigi replied, mirroring Crystal's smile as she rested her head on her shoulder "today has been such a good day, this is probably the best way to end it."

"You never told us how the appointment went," Crystal stated, looking up at the stars "I'm guessing it went well?"

"It went better than well, it was amazing Crys!" Gigi answered as she closed her eyes "He referred me to some clinic that can get me started on hormones!"

"Seriously?" Crystal asked excitedly, squeezing her girlfriend's hand "Geeg, that's amazing!"

"I know!" Gigi responded, opening her eyes and pulling her head away from Crystal's shoulder to look into her eyes "Everything's just going right! I never would've thought that all of this would happen when I moved here, and now it's happening!"

"I can only imagine how happy you are," Crystal replied, leaning in closer to Gigi "I'm so proud of you Geeg, you know that right?"

"For what?"

"For being so strong," Crystal answered, cupping her girlfriend's cheek in her hand "you're the most perfect girlfriend I could've ever asked for, and the fact that you're able to be so strong and fight when you're going through things that I can't even begin to imagine is what makes me proud of you."

Gigi melted with Crystal's words, leaning into her touch as the ginger pulled her in for a soft kiss that continued to set off fireworks in Gigi's body every time.

When they pulled away, they smiled at each other silently for a few moments, before Crystal spoke up again.

"You mean the world to me Geeg." The ginger whispered

"You mean the world to me too Crys."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel so good about this chapter tbh, I hated it at first, but after scrapping over a thousand words and rewriting the entire beginning to this chapter I really like it!! 
> 
> WOOO go Gigi for getting what she needs and deserves!!


	12. AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys!!

I'm so sorry I've made you wait so long just to not post a chapter, but I just wanted to update you on why I haven't been updating this fic for a while.

I'm in 6th year currently, which in Ireland (where I live) is the final year of secondary school, so I'm being put under a lot of pressure in regards to my Leaving Cert (final exams) and graduating. 

With all of this work being put on me, I've been insanely stressed and unable to focus on a lot of things other than school, and when I'm not doing work I'm usually just sleeping, so I can't write as much as I used to.

I already said the reasons for me not being able to post much in February, and I'm doing a lot better now than I was.

So with all of this, it might take me a lot longer to update this fic than I originally hoped and I probably wont be able to update this month. I hope you can all understand!!

I really appreciate how patient you all have been with me in regards to updating this fic and I promise you that I will eventually update and finish this fic, but for now I just don't have the time.

Thank you all so much for sticking with me through everything and I hope to see you all again when I eventually post the next chapter :)

Hope you're all having a great day/night, - Evan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if any of you ever wanna contact me, my insta is cl0wnb0y.jpegg

**Author's Note:**

> As a trans person I was definitely affected in the most positive way when Gigi opened up about her gender fluidity during s12, so I decided to project my dysphoria onto her because I'm a lil bitch boy and idk how to cope lolz <3 
> 
> also,,, no,, I totally didn't give Crystal my septum piercing,,, I'm totally not projecting on multiple characters rn
> 
> Due to someone letting me know that using Gigi's legal name in this is disrespectful, I've changed it to something else!


End file.
